\u201cThe biggest indicator of this is the fact that the majority of consumers are still struggling to pay their bills and loans on time, and credit providers are going to have to find innovative ways of managing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
How income decreased<\/strong><\/p>\n The biggest household spending changes that respondents said they will make over the next three months to manage expenses is decrease discretionary personal spend (61%) and decrease in-store and online retail shopping purchases like clothing, electronics and durable goods (46%).<\/p>\n However, the proportion of negatively impacted consumers concerned about their ability to pay their bills and loans increased from 84% the week of 30 November to 87% in March. More than one in three impacted consumers (37%, up by six percentage points from the week of 30 November) expect to not be able to pay their bills and loans within one month.<\/p>\n Among consumers whose household income is currently decreased and have these bills\/loans, the top ones that they said they will not be able to pay are mashonisa (informal) loans (46%), followed by personal loans and private student loans (both at 44%) and retail\/clothing store accounts (39%).<\/p>\n Among all South African consumers, 39% said they are planning to pay partial amounts towards their bills or loans to remain current, while just under half of respondents (46%) report being past due on a bill or loan in the past three months.<\/p>\n Consumers plan for recovery<\/strong><\/p>\n Consumers are adopting a range of strategies to deal with the financial impact of Covid-19. A third of negatively impacted consumers plan to pay their current bills and loans using savings, TransUnion said.<\/p>\n While 91% of responding consumers consider access to credit important – with 23% considering it extremely important – two-thirds of respondents have not considered applying for additional credit.<\/p>\n The primary reasons for not applying were the cost of new credit was too high (26%); or they believed their application would be rejected due to their income (32%) or their credit history (25%).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What has changed in your household budget?<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/TransUnion2-1.png\"){kind=spacer}
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