Financial knowledge 'drops despite credit crunch'

By Sarah Engle, Wed 20 Aug 2008 - Published in Credit Cards

Brits' knowledge of money matters is getting worse, according to new research.

Abbey questioned adults about a range of financial matters and found people performed more poorly than they did 12 months ago.

Some 88 per cent of those questioned did not know you get six weeks to pay back a credit card without accruing interest, two per cent more than last year.

Another 25 per cent were unaware that failure to meet repayments for a secured loan means you might lose your house, up from 23 per cent in 2007.

Meanwhile, 18 per cent had no idea what hire purchase means, an increase of six per cent on the previous year.

Commenting on the findings, Steve Shore, director at Abbey Banking, said: "While most people are in the realms of a GCSE pass, the failure rate has increased by over one million."

He claimed this was "quite worrying" as the current economic downturn has been a favourite topic in the media for so long.

In other news, the Association of Payment Clearing Services claims online banking can help people plan their finances more accurately.

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