Three quarters of consumers are more likely to read mundane information, such as the blurb on the back of the cereal packet, than information sent to them by their financial services providers, according to a study by Docucorp, a provider of customer communication management systems to the financial services industry.
The study found that women and the young are most likely to neglect their personal finances, and 80% feel that financial information is presented in a way that makes it too difficult to understand.
Another 75% of adults in the UK are so disinterested in detailed information about their mortgages, pensions, insurance and bank accounts that they would be more likely to devote time to reading something as trivial as a cereal or cosmetics packet, calorie content or their horoscope, according to a new survey of 1,000 consumers. 60% of those surveyed admit they do not regularly read the financial correspondence they receive.
Women are experiencing greater financial estrangement than men, with 87% claiming that they are more likely to read trivial material than financial information. Only 12% of women and 15% of consumers under 30 say they regularly read the correspondence sent to them by financial providers.
Correspondence relating to pensions fared the worst, with 68% of respondents admitting that they do not bother to read it. 65% and 64% respectively do not read information connected with their household insurance or mortgage.
From a regional perspective, the South East is revealed as more financially sophisticated than the rest of the country. Nevertheless, 57% of people there do not regularly read their financial correspondence, whilst 66% would be more likely to devote time to reading trivial information.
Tracey Robinson, Vice President of Docucorp EMEA, said, “This is not a simple case of consumer indifference. The lack of attention paid to pensions, for example, can be explained by the fact that consumers rank their pensions’ information as the most is poorly presented and difficult to understand out of all their financial correspondence. These results seem particularly ironic, given the commitment from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to build ‘financial capability’ among UK consumers through the provision of clear information.”
Of those surveyed, 80% feel that the information sent to them is presented in a way that makes it too difficult to understand. 79% of consumers even suggest that only a financial services professional could fully understand much of the information they receive. Consumers also expressed concern as to the quantity of correspondence, with 74% believing that important information could be lost in the sheer volume of material distributed.