DMMA survey reveals noteworthy findings on financial behaviour of online South Africans

The average South African Internet user has good access to credit with over 60% of them owning a credit card. More than half of the respondents with monthly household incomes greater than R12 000 have credit cards. This figure increases to around 75% when monthly household incomes are above R16 000.

Internet banking is also very popular with 77% of users having used this service. As users earn more they are more likely to use Internet banking but even from a monthly household income of R12 000 we see over 70% of respondents use the service.

Surprisingly few respondents have researched or applied for financial services online, with 55% of respondents stating they have not used the Internet to research or apply for a home loan, vehicle finance, a bank account, a credit card, a personal loan or overdraft. Researching or applying for bank accounts or credit cards was the most favoured when it came to this activity, at 23% and 20% respectively.

Cash and debit cards are the most popular way to pay for everyday in-store grocery purchases with cash at 63% and debit cards at 60%. More than 75% of people with a household income under R9 000 prefer to pay cash when purchasing grocery items in store.

Boys definitely like their toys with males being 90% more likely than females to have researched or applied for vehicle finance online. Women also keep the store account stereotype going by being 57% more likely than their male counterparts to purchase an everyday in-store grocery item using a store card or account.

Insurance is definitely the necessary evil with about 25% of respondents not owning any form of vehicle, household or life/disability/income protection insurance. That said, over 60% of respondents who have a monthly household income above R6 000 do have some form of insurance. This figure increases to over 80% when monthly household income increases to R16 000.

Home loans are evidently still hard to come by, with only 36% of respondents having home loans. However, more than half of the respondents with household incomes greater than R30| 000 a month have home loans which is evidence of the fact that you still need to earn significantly more than the South African average to have a good chance of securing a loan.

For more information contact the DMMA on az.oc.ammd@ofni.

Table 1 below shows the data and questions asked.