Interest rates on consumer loans exceeded 10%, according to the latest Central Bank data. However, according to experts, these levels are average and in most banks in our country the interest rates are still in the range of up to 5 percent. Higher values are found when there is doubt about income. In the studio of “Your Day“ on NOVANEWS, credit consultant Elena Mihaylova and the chairwoman of the Association for Receivables Management Lilia Dimitrova expressed their opinions.
“The large banks currently have interest rates of around 4.5 -4.7% on consumer loans“, Dimitrova pointed out.
“These 10% are probably a fairly balanced figure between the different banks. Because each bank's credit resource costs a different amount, they have different liquidity and therefore can afford to lend in different ways. They are far from these 10%“, explained the chairman of the Association for Receivables Management.
“The interest rate depends a lot on the client's profile, because with consumer loans, when you have an employment contract and you know that your income is official, then we work with these rates. However, when there is a gray part of the income, then the rates are completely different. That's where this discrepancy and this average interest rate of 10.3% come from, but these are definitely not the rates we work with“, said Mihaylova.
Meanwhile, 73% of Bulgarians do not save money, and 6 percent define their standard of living as high. This is shown by data from a survey on financial literacy and investments in our country, conducted by the “Trend“ agency. The study tracks changes in the personal finance and income trends of Bulgarians in 2024, compared to those of 2023.
90 percent of Bulgarians do not invest, 73% do not save money, and 84 percent of people rely only on income from their salary or pension. Over 1/4 of those surveyed indicated that they do not expect their lives to improve this year, and nearly half expect their standard of living to remain the same. The topic is commented on by financier Georgi Zahariev.