Families are still feeling the acute financial burden caused by increased costs and higher interest rates, and new research from Moneyhub reveals that over half of people regularly worry about their financial situation. The research also shows that UK savers believe their banks could be doing significantly more to help them get to grips with their finances
The middle-aged are the most likely generation to feel the pressure on their purse strings, with 63% of 45-54-year-olds indicating they are worried about their finances.
However, while a total of 31% of those surveyed admitted to putting off life goals – such as having children – due to not being able to afford it, this figure shot up to 48% for 18-34 year-olds.
The generational differences don’t stop there. Across the two-fifths of respondents who regularly finish the month with no money in their accounts or with an overdraft, this number jumped to 54% for those aged 25-33 years old and fell to 35% for 55-60-year-olds.
Following a difficult year for personal finances, which saw consumers grapple with high inflation and soaring costs, 44% of respondents said they had to dip into their savings in the past 12 months. A further 28% said that they are struggling to save, while 18% have an erratic approach to savings, with some months being better than others. Tellingly, only 15% of respondents said they are able to save a significant portion of their income each month.
Although the research nods to the difficulties presented by macroeconomic pressures, it also shows that banks and financial institutions could do more to help. Over a third (34%) of respondents said that banks and financial institutions don’t make it easy to understand finances, and 31% said that they would save more if they understood their finances better.
When asked what they think banks can do to make life easier, 16% said that they’d like nudges for when they could be saving money or switching to better savings rates. 13% would like access to free money management apps that allow them to see and understand all their finances, and 12% said they wanted easier methods to contact customer services.
Kim Jenkins, Managing Director of Moneyhub API, said: “Our research makes it clear that there is an opportunity to help customers understand and manage their finances. By using the available technology, banks and financial institutions would be able to help their customers properly understand their financial situation and provide smart nudges that would help them make better financial decisions.
Through Open Banking capability and easy-to-build solutions such as Moneyhub’s Smart Saver API Recipe, banks can provide a helping hand for their customers to budget and know precisely when they have excess to save. This will also enable them to deliver better customer outcomes.”
About the research:
The research was conducted by Censuswide with 2,000 Nationally representative general consumers between 27.10.23 and 31.10.23. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society, which is based on the ESOMAR principles and is a member of The British Polling Council.
About Moneyhub’s Smart Saver Recipe
Moneyhub’s Smart Saving API recipe supports customers’ financial journeys through personalised and automated saving. With enhanced visibility through Open Banking and Open Finance offers, customers identify their realistic savings goals and expedite the process. The right mix of account aggregation and nudges.
With the data in hand, nudges instigate action. With the data in one view, nudges can trigger the right questions at the right time, helping more customers build their savings and become more financially resilient.
About Moneyhub
Moneyhub is a data, intelligence, and payments company which develops ISO 27001 certified software for Open Banking, Open Finance, and Open Data applications. Its FCA-regulated Open Data platform enables companies to quickly and easily transform data into personalised digital experiences and initiate payments. Its APIs and fully customisable platform provide data aggregation, insights, notification nudges, and payment systems. As a result, clients have the consent-driven data and analytics they need to create super-personalised offers, products, and services. Hundreds of organisations, spanning finance to media and retail, rely on Moneyhub’s award-winning technology.
For more information, please visit www.moneyhub.com.