VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#fintech–Progressa, a Vancouver and Toronto based financial technology company,
released findings from its non-prime consumer survey revealing that 76%
of respondents thought their banks would not help out in a difficult
financial situation.
Progressa conducted its Annual State of Non-Prime Canadian Consumers
Survey. Respondents were asked questions related to their income,
expenses, debt load, budget management, and credit monitoring. The
results raised some concerns over how much financial literacy education
Canadians require, but more importantly, this survey showed some clear
signs that Canadians are stressed over not being prepared for difficult
financial situations and not having available options to help if they
were to fall on hard times. When asked “what is the first word that
comes to mind when you think of money”, the most frequently written
responses included “bills”, “stress”, “struggle”, and “anxiety.”
Other key findings included:
-
52% are very confident about their job security over the next 3 years,
but only 29% could handle not getting paid for 3 weeks or more. 38% of
respondents said they could only go one week without getting paid,
while another 33% could handle two weeks without getting paid -
Only 36% have contributed to their RRSP or TFSA over the past year,
while 39% said they have “never” contributed -
24% would have no way to pay for an unplanned emergency expense, and
another 25% would have to turn to friends and family for help. In
other words, nearly half of respondents are not financially prepared
for difficult financial situations - 61% have up to $15,000 in debt (not including mortgages)
-
The economy and job security are the most important election issues
this fall, indicated by 40% of respondents. This significantly trumps
health care (29% of respondents) and the environment (8% of
respondents) - 34% have not checked their credit scores in the last 6 months
“This survey indicates pay cheque to pay cheque Canadians are not
getting the support they need from their primary financial institutions
when they need it the most,” said Jason Wang, Progressa’s Vice President
of Risk Analytics. “Most banks use a traditional credit model that is
not as effective in scoring credit-impaired consumers.”
In addition, with both Canadian credit bureaus, TransUnion and Equifax
continuing to sound alarms that Canadians are taking on record amounts
of debt relative to income and most of Canada’s big 5 banks reporting
higher than expected loan losses in Q1 of 2019, Progressa is seeing
record demand for its products
and services, all purpose built to tackle the issue of debt and help
Canadians avoid insolvency.
Progressa CEO Ali Pourdad cautions “All Canadian consumers, but
especially those living pay cheque to pay cheque, need to take a hard
look at their spending and savings patterns and begin planning better
for a rainy day. Most, if not all of our customers have been at some
point in their recent lives caught in a difficult financial situation,
although often unavoidable, could have made things significantly less
stressful for themselves with better financial habits and planning.”
Ali recently discussed the importance of financial literacy at the 2019
Collision Conference in Toronto, North America’s fastest growing
technology event, with over 25,000 attendees and announced the release
of Progressa’s 2019 Annual State of Non-Prime Canadian Consumers Survey.
To view the full study go to: https://blog.progressa.com/annual-state-survey-2019
About Progressa
Named by CB Insights to the 2018 Fintech 250, a list of the world’s top
fintech startups, Progressa is Canada’s fastest growing financial
technology lender focused on changing the way pay cheque to pay cheque
Canadians access and build credit. Since 2013, our mission has been to
build a socially responsible consumer finance company that encourages
borrowing for the right reasons and that Canadians can be proud of. Our
enterprise solutions suite, driven by the 5th Generation Progressa
Score™, is built for collection agencies and point of sale finance.
We empower collection agencies to offer proactive solutions and drive
healthy recoveries while protecting brand loyalty with industry leading
NPS and servicing. For point of sale finance, we allow platform partners
and other originators to expand their merchant offerings to service
non-prime consumers and achieve industry leading approval rates.
Learn more: progressa.io
Contacts
Philipp Postrehovsky
Media Relations
[email protected]
604.657.2775
