The Problem

Nearly 13m people across the country would be pushed into financial difficulty with an unexpected bill. Rising living costs and job insecurity caused the outbreak of Covid-19 make this an increasingly challenging issue, both nationally and for 2m Londoners living in poverty.

Once government support and payment breaks come to an end, it is anticipated that people who were ‘just about managing’ pre-Covid could be tipped into financial hardship, and faced with the difficulty of navigating a complex landscape of advice which they have no experience of.

We have always believed that improving people’s ability to manage and control their finances makes good business sense and has a positive impact on their lives.

Faisel Rahman, CEO of Fair Finance

Our response

  • A new online financial advice referrals tool to help those financially affected by Covid-19 to navigate the landscape of advice and support available to them.
  • Adjustments to the online personal loan service run by Fair Finance, which provides more affordable loans to those who are excluded from mainstream finance, harnessing behavioural science methods.
  • In-depth user research to understand how Fair Finance customers have been affected by Covid-19 and what Fair Finance can do to support them.

Methods

  • Management interviews
  • Expert interviews
  • Customer journey mapping
  • Literature review
  • Trial design
  • Testing with 1500 customers
  • Depth customer interviews

[Photo by Mirza Babic on Unsplash]

Research

Inverting the question: RCT findings on reframing borrowing in terms of repayment

September 28, 2021

Findings from our second RCT with Fair Finance and Paul Adams exploring the role of repayment framing in online loan applications and affordability.

Encouraging Affordable Borrowing

March 20, 2020

In this report, published with Fair Finance, we share our RCT findings on anchoring loan amounts.

Comment

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Email me - immy.robinson@shiftdesign.org