Research shows: more than a half of residents in the Baltics carefully assess credit repayment possibilities

53% of Baltic residents mention lower annual interest rates as the decisive reason for them choosing a creditor. Assessment of other expenses occurring during the credit repayment is equally important. This shows a positive trend that credit repayment possibilities are carefully assessed. Women find the option to obtain consumer loans remotely and short approval periods more important than men. According to research conducted by Luminor, this trend is typical in all three Baltic States.

Women in the Baltic States find the option to obtain credit remotely and short approval periods more important than men do. Nearly 50% of women in all three Baltic States specified the possibility to obtain credit remotely as being very important, and a mere third of men shared the same opinion (in Latvia – 30%; in Lithuania – 28%; in Estonia – 33%). However, the overall questionnaire data show that consumer loans in all three Baltic States are more frequently taken out by men, accounting for 54% of the respondents who took out consumer loans within the two last years (in Estonia – 54%, in Lithuania – 58%, in Latvia – 51%).  
 
“We carefully follow the habits of our customers, and the fact that remote services are becoming more popular is apparent not only in the area of crediting. More than 85% of Luminor customers in the Baltic States use remote channels for their daily financial services on a daily basis. Overall, the number of male and female internet users in Latvia is equal¹; therefore, it is interesting that this research discovered differences between then genders – it is apparent that women are more interested in using remote services than men. However, our experience shows that the decision-makers are mostly men,” says Ingūna Krieva, lending expert at Luminor.
 
In general, when selecting a creditor the following aspects are the most important for residents of the Baltic States:

• Lower total costs during the credit repayment period, including administrative expenses, fees (in Lithuania – 61%, in Latvia – 49%; in Estonia – 52%).
• Low annual interest rates were assessed as equally important (in Lithuania – 62%, in Latvia – 49%; in Estonia – 48%).
• For the respondents of Latvia, the third most important aspect was the option to deal with everything remotely (41% in total specified this option as very important), whereas in Lithuania the third most important aspect was short approval periods (very important for 40% of respondents), while 41% of respondents in Estonia indicated both remote credit options and the reputation of a bank as a trustworthy creditor as very important factors.