Program design.
The Financial Health Check (FHC) is a free, voluntary one-hour financial counseling session that takes place at a bank branch. Unlike traditional financial literacy programs, the principal goal of FHC is to pair information with action — persuading clients to sign up for automatic savings transfers and/or bill payments at the site of education. FHC was designed to close an intention-action gap that traditional financial counseling programs have failed to effectively bridge. It showed statistically significant results in savings, debt reduction and credit score improvement. There are three key behavioral facets of FHC:
- Creating a moment that fits into people’s lives
- Facilitating follow through in real time
- Automating savings
Low uptake.
Clients were solicited by mail and telephone. The overall response rate was 2%, though 15% of those reached by telephone agreed to partake. There was a 35% no-show rate. In sum, 175 out of 25,000 people received a FHC — only 7/10 of 1% of those solicited. On top of that, only 15% of those that did attend actually signed up for automatic savings transfers, bringing the program's intended effects to only about 25 people, or 1/1000 of the group initially contacted. A meta-analysis of similar projects may reveal this is an unacceptable rate of uptake.
Modes of resistance.
There were several forms of resistance to the program itself:
- Retention and availability of financial coaches proved challenging
- Clients were not frequently enough persuaded to sign up for automatic transfers
- Many clients did not respond to outreach, or did not show up to the FHC appointment
More broadly.
Moreover, the multifaceted demographic that struggles with saving faces broader impediments:
- Busyness masked as forgetfulness
- Limited self-control
- Difficulty accessing accounts
- Administrative burden
- Cognitive overload