Fourteen percent of 18-35 year olds live in a sense of financial insecurity, according to the BIK and ANG Group report “Young adults: attitudes to finance and debt”. The percentage of financially satisfied is 28% of young adults, but a strong stance on the issue was expressed by 5% of this group.
“Almost three out of four young adults today do not feel financially secure. The reasons for this can be found in various places, but certainly at the root is the level of savings available to young adults, which for only 30% of those surveyed would be enough to cover their living costs for more than three months. The second hugely important reason is the lack of a sense of financial stability, which affects 62% of young adults. On the one hand, this is derived from the uncertainty of keeping a job, and on the other, from macroeconomic issues that can significantly affect the value of the money they have. The third area explaining the low level of perceived financial security of young people relates to the financial challenges they face, which often seem almost or completely unattainable, e.g. buying a flat or a house,” said the study’s author Katarzyna Sekścińska.
Data shows that the youngest group of borrowers, i.e. those under 24 years of age, have more than 1.333 million credit obligations and loans amounting to over PLN 9 billion. In turn, the survey indicates that 84% of young people faced a challenge of raising funds to achieve their goals and used some form of external financing.
The majority, more than half (54%), first turned to family or friends for a loan. This may be a direct indication of low creditworthiness or a fear of using financial institutions due to lack of experience, it was highlighted.
On the other hand, for almost half of young people (48%) it is the credit card, i.e. a bank product, that proves to be a popular and frequently used means of making payments. BIK data confirms that the youngest group, i.e. up to 24 years old, currently holds 67.72 thousand cards with limits of over PLN 160 million.
Thirty seven percent of young people have experience in purchases made using the deferred payment method – a value more than twice as high as that obtained in surveys for the entire adult Polish population, which amounts to 16%. It is worth noting at the same time the growing popularity of this form of crediting for purchases, also among older people, i.e. those aged 35-44 (24.2%), according to the report..
“Customers’ knowledge of banking products and services is still low. Therefore, as a financial industry, we need to pay special attention to the growing popularity of digital financial products. According to the survey, only half of the respondents understand that a BNPL payment is also a credit/loan, and only 38% know that a delay in repayment of a BNPL commitment will turn this commitment into an instalment loan,” ANG Group CEO Artur Nowak-Gocławski stressed.
The survey ‘Young adults: attitudes to finance and debt’ was produced as part of a collaboration between BIK and ANG Group. It was conducted in November 2023 with a nationwide sample of 1,023 adult Poles aged 18-35, carried out using the CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interview) technique on the Ariadna National Research Panel. The author of the study is Katarzyna Sekścińska, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Department of Business Psychology and Social Innovation, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw.
Source: BIK, Grupa ANG and ISBnews
