Living life on credit :

MUMBAI 

Living life on credit is the mantra of the city's youth, shows a new study, 

which concludes that While 75 %of those surveyed owned a credit card, 63 % used it at least once a month. 

The three-year research, which surveyed 2,135 in the age group of 1 7-30 years

however, says that respondents have low financial literacy scores on basic money management (47.96 %) and savings and investment know-how (48.1 %).

What is shocking is that 80 %do not monitor their expenditure. 

The advent of mall culture, obsession with brands, peer pressure and gadgets has a strong influence on their spending pattern.

23 % said as long as their expenditure did not exceed their income, there was no need to track

11 % gave the excuse of lack of time

14 % said there were too many uncertainties and therefore, there was no point monitoring their expenditure." said Dr Jehangir Bharucha, director of postgraduate studies at IIR

The overall financial literacy score for Mumbai was 60.33 %

South Mumbai achieved a score of 64.9 %

Western Mumbai scored 59.16 %

Central Mumbai achieved a financial literacy score of 56.9 %

Around 25 % possessed a single credit card

And of the remaining 75 per cent, 41 % possessed two cards. 

Around 12 %had over three cards. 

This means that 35 % had over one card. 19 %use it at least thrice monthly.

In case of debit cards, 65 % possess one debit card," says the paper.

In terms of the most important factor influencing choice of credit cards 27 %were opted for credit limit, closely followed by 25 %whose selection depends upon peer pressure.

69.76 % using it for purchasing clothing and accessories

64.84 % on movie tickets and entertainment.

53 % used it on food and beverages,

29.22 % for buying mobiles or on mobile payments

16 % for buying fuel and 14 % on utility payments.

A majority of the youth (67 per cent) felt they were not saving enough.

"Around 33 %were confident of their ability to save and said they have good saving habits;

12 %saved sometimes and 13 %said they were not saving at all," said Bhamcha.