About 40% Of Romanians Meet Difficulties In Paying Loan Installments - Poll

The survey shows that more than half of Romanians use no financial service. Only 35% of the respondents use formal financial services, and the ratio is expected to rise to 45% in the upcoming two years.

Debit cards are among the most used financial services (18.5% of respondents), followed by insurance policies (15.6%), consumer loans (9.6%), loans taken from relatives or friends (8.2%) and bank deposits (7.9%). In the next two years, loans from friends or relatives might climb to 30%, while the so called "on credit" store purchases will rise to 15%, from 5.8%.

The survey shows that the use of insurance policies is directly connected to the users' income, education, age and residence. About 27% of respondents did not know how to assess life or home insurance policies and about 22% said they have no need of such insurance policies.

Romanians consider life and home insurance policies are necessary, but about 10% of them believe insurers will not observe the terms included in the their insurance contracts, while over 31% of the respondents said insurance policies are far too expensive.

On the other hand, 12% of those who use financial services were displeased by at least one of them, and only 2% at most filed complaints with authorities.

The survey revealed that most financial service users do not know their rights and that most of Romanians are not aware of financial service risks. Moreover, they have little trust in the current system tasked with solving financial conflicts.

The survey also shows that about 45% of Romanians compare the conditions and terms of the different financial services they are interested in before purchasing any of them and most Romanians choose a financial institution based on the loan cost. About 54% of the respondents said they ask for information before buying a financial product, while only 4% resort to independent experts in order to get the pieces of information they need.

World Bank officials said Romania needs to urgently develop and implement a financial education national program, based on a partnership between the Government, financial sector regulators, financial institutions, the education system and other partners.

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