People most often use consumer loans to improve the quality of their lives, with 51% of the loans being used to renovate a home or to purchase a car. The average sum of the loan is EUR 1,800, according to information that the Citadele banka has collected in Latvia.
30% of those who take out consumer loans use the money to renovate a home, while 21% buy a car, according to data from the past 12 months.
“The consumer loan is the best solution when a larger sum is needed for a specific and essential purchase, and the client does not have enough money for that purpose,” says the director of the Citadele Private Person Service Division, Baiba Tētiņa. “Men and women have different needs, and priorities change during various phases of human lives. Men take out consumer loans to buy a car two times more often than women do, while women use the loans to cover medical expenditures than men do.”
Citadele data show that men, on average, borrow more than women do – EUR 1,900, as opposed to EUR 1,700. Men are also more active in taking out loans, with 56% of consumer loans being approved for them.
“A very small sum of money or one that is equal to several months of wages can be received as a consumer loan,” says Tētiņa. “Most residents carefully and responsibly evaluate the amount of lending obligations and whether the planned goal or intended purchase is really necessary. We see that consumer loans are most often used for priorities in a specific period of the client’s life so as to improve his or her quality of life. Consumer loans for educational purposes are most often taken out by people who are younger than 30, while loans for medical services are most often received by people over 40. It is interesting that men younger than 30 mostly use consumer loans to purchase a car, while those who are older use it for home repairs. For women of all ages, the most frequent goal is to renovate the home.”
Citadele collected these data on the basis of data about consumer loans between July 2014 and July 2015.
About Citadele banka
Citadele banka is a local Latvian bank that offers banking, financial and asset management services. Citadele banka is the parent company of the Group. The core market of Citadele Group is the Baltic states - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Citadele is the cooperation partner of American Express® in Latvia and Lithuania that is entitled to issue American Express payment cards. An international group of investors represented by Ripplewood Advisors LLC owns 75% plus one of Citadele banka's shares. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) owns the remaining 25% minus one of the bank's shares. Additional information: www.citadele.lv.