Bogotá — As a consequence of inflation, a historic dollar and high interest rates from financial institutions, the purchasing power of Colombians has been affected and their consumption has undergone significant changes.
This, in turn, has generated a domino effect that affects their access to different financing products.
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According to the most recent Quarterly Financial Inclusion Report (RIF), delivered by Banca de las Oportunidades, in the country the number of aAdults with at least one deposit or credit financial product reached 34.5 million, which corresponds to 92.1% of Colombians of legal age.
However, a very low percentage can still be observed in terms of credit products, since of that total, only 36% that is, 13.5 million Colombians have at least one formal financial credit product.
“Although access to formal financing has positive effects for Colombian households and companies, this does not happen automatically. There are usually both supply and demand barriers, and one of the big problems in the country is lack of knowledge. in terms of financial education, which closes the doors to having spending planning, financing tools and their selection criteria”, highlighted Tatiana García, marketing director of Enbanca, who recommends that at this time the most important thing to keep in mind is:
1. Know your borrowing capacity and payment capacity, before requesting a loan. This will have a balance on income: current expenses, current debts and fixed expenses, taking into account the interest to be paid, to avoid falling into default due to late payment.
2. The ideal is to allocate up to 40% of income to pay debts, since the key is to have control over your income and expenses.
3. Financial education is essential, as it provides people with the necessary tools to make informed decisions. This includes learning how to budget, save, invest, and effectively manage your personal finances.
On the other hand, the platform allows a natural person to consult their credit score, which ends up being a requirement that is important for banks, since it is the calculation of information entities and credit bureaus with which they predict an eventual probability whether a person applying for a loan is in default or not.
Added to this is that it allows the users to access financial products according to the credit behavior of each person, and that can be get to request through a catalog of alliances.
There is no doubt that digital tools have gained great importance among Colombians in the face of the current situation thanks to the fact that they help increase accessibility to financial services, reduce operating costs, improve efficiency, enable personalization of financial products and improve the security of online transactions.
And it is that by understanding how personal finances work, you can take measures such as safe retirement savings, establish an emergency fund and avoid excessive debt. In addition, being aware of how the sector moves helps to achieve economic goals with greater confidence and security.