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Written by: Jessica Woodruff
According to a survey by Brands Laduma, millenials are increasingly favouring their friends and family over banks when it comes to financial advice.
The survey, developed by the head of research at Brands Laduma, Piet Geustyn, was well received with 88.7 percent completion rate. The data was then broken up into three age groups; The Banking Behaviour of a 18-24 year old, a 25-34 year old, and a 35-49 year old.
The first two age groups seemed to have similar results whereby they still only had one bank account, although the 25-34 year olds were starting to think of applying for another bank account. Both groups were interested in financial education with a score of 90 percent in both age groups agreeing they would like more financial education.
The 18-24 year old group are tech savvy and prefer to communicate with their bank either through a banking app on their cell phones or via the ATM. A possible explanation for this could be that this age group do not make many banking deposits and rely more on cash and swiping their cards for all transactions.
The 25-34 year old age group seem to be a little more curious about the world of banking and the benefits and, products and rewards given. This age group also lived a little dangerously with 23 percent admitting to needing instant cash loans and other short-term loans to “keep up the joneses”.
A total of 28 percent of this age group admitted they chose a bank depending on the rewards the bank offered.
The 35-49 year old participants considered themselves the provider for their family and, although they would like to live on cash, were forced to use credit in order to provide effectively for their family. A total of 57 percent had two or more bank accounts and 36 percent had a cheque account.
The majority of this age group also said they needed physical access to their banks and accessed their banks in many different ways. When asked why they chose their bank, 27 percent of the group replies because they had seen the advertising for it everywhere that they went which prompted them to go check it out.
What is encouraging to see is that the information youngsters receive from their elders is seemingly correct, otherwise they would not be continuing to gain their financial advice. Geustyn comments, “Community ties should be thought of as on-the-ground social networks – just like someone who turns to Facebook or Twitter for product reviews, our ‘Ubuntu Millennials’ turn to their communities”.
Geustyn also advises banks to take note of this and to not let good old-fashioned customer service fall by the wayside. “Because the older customers will pass on their brand experiences to the youngsters in their lives”.
