23 August 2007
As millions of GCSE students find out their long-awaited exam results today, Abbey has revealed that one in ten UK adults would fail a simple personal finance examination.
Abbey conducted a survey on over 1,000 adults using questions taken from a past examination paper equivalent in difficulty to a GCSE.
Based on the results of the tests, it found that just 25% of candidates were on track for an A* grade, while 30% achieved an A grade.
A commendable 21% achieved a B grade, while a disappointing 13% only achieved a C-grade pass.
The top five incorrect answers included 86% of people who did not realise that they get six weeks to pay back credit card debts, as well as 44% who were ignorant to the true meaning of what the term UC meant on a bank statement (unpaid cheque).
What is more, nearly a quarter of respondents (23%) did not realise that failure to pay a secured loan meant that they could risk losing their house to pay for the loan.
Steve Shore, Head of Banking at Abbey, commented: "While most people are in the realms of a GCSE pass, almost five million British adults would fail a simple personal finance exam.
"Quite worrying given we selected questions that we felt everyone with a bank account should know.
"We would also urge anyone who doesn't understand something on their bank statement to contact their branch or a financial adviser."
The 18 to 24-year-old age bracket scored the worst with an average score of 50 percent - the equivalent to a GCSE grade C.
The UK government has announced plans to introduce personal finance skills into the maths GCSE exam in the near future.
© 2008 Adfero Ltd
Content for the uSwitch.com market news service is provided by a third party, Adfero Ltd. Whilst uSwitch.com makes reasonable efforts to check the reliability of this content, uSwitch.com does not guarantee the accuracy thereof or endorse the views or opinions given by Adfero Ltd, unless expressly stated otherwise.