The Attitude of Young Hungarian Adults to Loans
Prof. Dr. Erzsébet Németh, Dániel Béres, Katalin Huzdik

Abstract
Society’s attitude towards loans determines the maximum welfare of the given economy and society. The aim of this study is to examine the attitude of young Hungarian adults (between the ages of 18 and 25) to loans. The data sources include the Financial Literacy research, conducted by the State Audit Office of Hungary in 2013, as well as various studies on the matter and official statistics. It is found that young people obtain the information needed to make financial decisions primarily from their families. This cannot be considered as positive practice, however, the internet as a source of information may be able to balance this. The majority of students examined are uncreditworthy and their attitude towards loans – similarly to that of Hungarian society – is clearly negative. Only one fifth of students has taken advantage of the loan products developed for their specific age group. Student loans are increasingly limited to covering tuition fees which in turn leads to welfare loss because of student objectives and various education-related costs.

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