Opinion: Forget about the kids, we need to educate older people about money
People always criticise the young for being bad with money, but perhaps it's high-time we educated the old.
Ask anyone over the age of 70, and most will agree that young people don’t know enough about money.
They are sent into the world with a credit card and an alarming level of ignorance – with utterly predictable results.
It’s no wonder they are considered the top priority for financial education initiatives.
Older people, meanwhile, are left to their own devices. They don’t need any help, because they have spent 70 or 80 years becoming experts in managing their own finances.
The only trouble with this argument is that it assumes the financial world stands still, when in reality it has been transformed in recent years.
The world that older people spent so long becoming experts in is disappearing, and in its place is another financial world - one where the over 70s risk feeling far less at home.
Technology has transformed our finances, just as it has changed so much else in life.
Nowadays, everything from banking to shopping, choosing an energy provider, finding the best deal on a mobile phone, and shopping around for the cheapest flights is done online.
There are plenty of older people who take advantage of every new opportunity.
Deborah Stone, co-founder of myageingparent.com, points out: “There are massive benefits for older people who use the internet. If they are finding it difficult to do the shopping or get to the bank, they can do it all online.”
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Never used the internet?!
The problem is that so many older people are made uncomfortable by technology.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that 10% of people have never used the internet - that’s 5.3 million people.
Almost half of them are aged 75 and over. In fact, only 39% of people aged 75 and over have used the internet in the past three months - including just 33% of women of this age.
Joanna Fowler, head of products at insurer Saga, says: “Younger retirees are very internet savvy, and do a lot of research online, but the older they get, the more wary they are of internet tools, and the more they prefer the human touch.”
There are several reasons why many over 75s don’t embrace new technology.
Stone highlights that fear plays a big part. She points out that while there are 90-year-olds like her father-in-law, who couldn’t live without the internet, there are also people like her mother who simply don’t ‘do’ computers.
Many older people are also wary of trusting organisations they cannot visit in person, and of internet security in general.
Mayte Hough, a Digital Eagle Leader for Barclays, says: “The main topic of conversation with older people tends to be around the security aspects, and how people can stay safe online, which is a major concern.”
Then there are practicalities, such as the fact that each separate service you use online requires a different password, and it’s not always easy to remember them all.
Do old people need to get with the times?
You could argue that older people don’t need to move with the financial world, because they can still visit the bank or phone the water company.
However, if they cannot engage with technology, older people can’t take advantage of the best deals on the market, which many organisations only offer online.
In fact, when it comes to things like the newer challenger banks, if they cannot access them online, they can’t access them at all.
When it comes to billing, they may also find that to continue to receive a paper bill or statement, they will have to pay for it, and something as simple as a phone bill could cost them £2.50 to receive.
Without the internet, shopping around for the best deals also becomes a much more arduous task.
Without simple shortcuts like price comparison sites and apps, there’s a real risk older people languish on expensive tariffs and in uncompetitive accounts.
For older people to get the most out of the financial world, therefore, they need someone to show them the ropes.
Barclays has established its Digital Eagles to help people with technology and getting online, and have found a large number of older people use the service.
Hough says: “We didn’t realise this would be the case, but we’ve found that older people like to take the chance to lean new technology skills face to face.”
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How to get them engaged
If older people are wary of trusting a bank to guide them, it may be up to a younger member of the family to take the lead, and there are a variety of techniques that can be highly effective.
Fowler says that in her experience, older users much prefer tablets to laptops or desktops, as they feel more intuitive, and it’s easy to get to grips with the idea that there’s an app for each thing they want to do online, rather than being overfaced by the whole of the internet.
Hough agrees that people come to associate an icon with, for example, buying train tickets, so it’s an easier way in than simply bookmarking a website. A tablet could, therefore, be a worthwhile investment.
If they will be using a computer, Stone recommends installing software that simplifies the screens, so they don’t have to go through a number of menus to get what they want.
Either way, it’s worth starting with one or two things, and clearing the rest out of sight.
Keep it simple and interesting
The best approach is to start by showing something that older people can be gripped by (something even more fascinating than banking).
The Barclays Digital Eagles, for example, start each conversation by finding out what people want help with, and are guided by that – rather than trying to push specific issues.
One popular place to start is Skype, because typically everyone can see the benefits of endless free calls.
As soon as older people have to sign up for their first service, the next app they need is one that remembers all their passwords for them - so all they need to do is remember one master password. There are loads of these tools, including LastPass.
Once they are comfortable with the idea of using apps, there are a handful of boring but functional ones that will make their life much easier.
They need the app from their bank, and any utility they use. This will make it much more straightforward for them to see their latest bill or statement.
You also need to take them through email, so that even if they don’t choose to communicate with friends and family this way, they can read any messages sent by financial services firms.
With all this under their belt, they are ready for the apps that will save them money. If they like to get a good deal, then a voucher site might be a good start.
One simple option is vouchercloud, which will generate voucher suggestions in the local area, and discounts on things they recognise, which will quickly demonstrate the savings that are out there.
If they get the money-saving bug, the next step might be a cashback app, which they can use to do all their online shopping, and receive generous cashback in return.
There are a number of possibilities, but two of the most popular are Topcashback and Quidco.
If they are taking advantage of their freedom to travel in retirement, there are a number of apps that will make it easier and less expensive.
If they’re struggling to get to the station to book train tickets in advance (which can be significantly cheaper), they can use an app like thetrainline, to buy tickets online.
Once they are used to buying tickets this way, you can introduce them to Split Ticketing which enables them to easily save money by buying split tickets.
If, for example, they were planning a journey from Bristol to London, it would check every combination of tickets to get them there (such as Bristol to Bath and Bath to London or Bristol to Reading and Reading to London) and assess which one is cheapest.
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If they are prepared not just to buy travel in a different way, but to travel in new ways too, you can introduce them to the sharing economy.
They can try hailing a taxi through Uber, and if they like the idea, they can graduate to the ride-sharing feature for cheaper journeys. They can also try Airbnb, for far cheaper holiday accommodation.
Finally, there are a host of apps that make it much easier to compare the price of almost anything.
There’s the Mysupermarket app, which is great for comparing prices across supermarkets, and the Skyscanner app, where you can search for cheap flights.
Family matters
Fortunately, as Stone points out, when it comes to shopping around for things like energy tariffs, “Most people have a family member who will put aside some time and go through the comparisons with them.
"They can do the switch online for them, so they don’t have to worry about learning a whole new set of price comparison skills.”
It’s essential to go through this process slowly, and not just upload 20 apps at once and leave them to struggle.
It’s also important to be sensitive: as you get older, learning new skills is not always as easy as it once was.
Stone suggests: “Sometimes it helps if you get their grandchildren to show them something to start with.
"Children have a way of explaining things that often works, and it can be easier for older people to hear it from a very different generation than from their own children.”
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