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Re-evaluating attitudes to savings and finance

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Owen Robson Insights Executive 11 November 2020

COVID has forced many people to re-evaluate their attitudes towards their savings and finance, helping Moneybox emerge as one of the winners during the pandemic.

Moneybox has succeeded in simplifying investments and educating young consumers in an open, transparent and helpful way.

COVID-19 has changed our lives in so many different and unusual ways. It has disrupted our norms and shifted behaviours; one of those being our attitude towards how we think about our money. This is particularly true amongst younger generations – Generation Z and Millennials. As many have been made redundant, been placed on furlough, seen their businesses close, or suffered tremendous loss of revenue and customers, financial security has been brought to the forefront of their minds.

With more time spent focusing on finances on top of the continual uncertainty regarding the future, the need for building towards financial security has become increasingly important. We know from our own Savanta data that 72% of all consumers say having some savings has become more important to their peace of mind since the onset of the pandemic, and this is even more the case among Millennials and Gen Z. So, with greater focus placed on savings, which brands have we turned to for support?

That’s where Moneybox comes in. Founded in late 2015 and currently with more than 450,000 customers, it has grown through providing solutions that really meet changing consumer needs. Currently Moneybox sits 19th overall in our Top 100 Most Loved Financial Services Brand’s Report and ranks 1st for Investment & Savings brands. For a brand that has been trading for less than 5 years, this is especially impressive. The COVID crisis has been an ironic win for Moneybox, as it has managed to fill a void that many did not even know needed filling. Moneybox’s BrandLove increased significantly from March to July, at the height of lockdown. Generation Z and Millennials’ brand love helped drive this, highlighting Moneybox’s proficiency in connecting so well with its target younger audience.

But why is Moneybox so loved amongst the younger generations? Moneybox has succeeded in simplifying investments and educating young consumers in an open, transparent and helpful way. It promotes itself as a service to help people re-connect with their finances with an easy to access, easy to use, investment service that allows consumers to round up their purchases to the nearest pound and set aside the spare change into savings and investment contributions. By connecting your bank account to the service, the app will automatically round up the purchases made on debit/ credit cards and place the rounded-up money into a choice of different savings and investment accounts, which widely range from Stocks & Shares ISAs, Personal Pensions to standard Savings Accounts.

Essentially, Moneybox has helped young consumers achieve the savings goal that has become more important to them in COVID and this is reflected in a significant increase in the proportion of under-40s who rate Moneybox as ‘helpful’:

This is even more stark among the youngest consumers, Gen Z, where nearly two fifths describe Moneybox as ‘helpful’ – a score that has tripled since the beginning of 2020.

Unlike traditional investment providers where the annual statement might be the only real touchpoint, Moneybox has also created a way to frequently interact with customers through push notifications each time money is added. We know that brands that people interact with more frequently have a greater opportunity to build the relationship and therefore brand love. Moneybox has created a way to frequently engage with its customers in a way more traditional investment and savings providers haven’t.

On top of this, 59% of consumers have said they are using cash less often, signifying an increase in card transactions. And with increased transactions, even more customer touchpoints are created.

It’s clear to see that Moneybox has very effectively tapped into the younger generations increased desire to save and to manage their finances. By keeping investments simple and removing the complexity, younger consumers have been able to save in a simple, easy to access way, helping them

Moneybox has also been able to engage customers and create frequent interactions – something fairly unique in this space. There are also signs that Moneybox is expanding. It recently raised £30m in funding, alongside the launch of the new pension detective service, indicating a new strategy towards targeting older consumers. It will be interesting to watch whether Moneybox can succeed in engaging older consumers in the way it has engaged younger generations.

To download our full Top 100 Most Loved Financial Services Brands report, click here.