Women More Conscious Of Their Financial Habits Than Men Finds Study

With more than 72 per cent of women with a credit score of 700 or more as compared to 66 per cent of men having a similar range of credit score, women seem more conscious of their financial habits than men, states a recent research report of BankBazaar.com, a fintech firm and online financial products marketplace. The report, BankBazaar Moneymood 2022, is based on a study of credit purchase trends of the company's 50 million consumers in India in 2021.   

Better Credit Score Trend   

The study found that more than 70 per cent of customers have a credit score of 700 points or more while more than 35 per cent have a score of above 800 points. In general, women have shown the trend of maintaining higher credit scores. Around 40 per cent of women reported having scores in the category of 800 points and above. In comparison, 35.6 per cent of men said they had such high scores.   

“Women, especially, have been doing a better job of maintaining a good credit score and thereby improving their chances of accessing credit. Nevertheless, there are gaps that need to be filled,” says Adhil Shetty, CEO, BankBazaar.com.   

More Women Opting For Credit Cards   

The study finds that there has been a remarkable increase in the number of women opting for credit cards in 2021. While in 2020 only 8.41 per cent of the customers applying for credit cards were women, this number jumped to around 12 per cent in 2021. The rise was highest in the age group of women below 25 years—a rise of nearly 175 per cent between 2020 and 2021.   

“The constraints of the pandemic increased the importance of credit cards as the first line of credit as well as the easiest payment mode. Coupled with easy accessibility due to contactless application processes via digital KYC, the demand for credit cards bounced back strongly and continues to rise,” says Pankaj Bansal, Chief Business Officer for BankBazaar.com.  

Overall, too, credit cards gained popularity. The share of fuel cards went up to 13.1 per cent of the overall cards, from 4.95 per cent last year.  

Bigger Personal Loans  

Over the past few years, the average ticket size for personal loans has gone down. The average ticket size was Rs 1.86 lakh in 2021, more than 3 per cent lower than in 2020. But the trend was reverse for women consumers. For the first time, women took bigger loans than men. The average ticket size for women borrowers was Rs1.87 lakh, marginally higher than Rs1.86 lakh for men.  

Home loan takers increased in 2021, but the average ticket size of home loans taken by women was Rs29.65 lakh, lower than Rs 26.99 lakh for men.