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As many as three million UK consumers are no longer being served by traditional banking providers – they have become disillusioned and disenfranchised.

According to Datamonitor, 5% of UK consumers would not go to traditional institutions to handle their money matters and this number is growing daily. People are sick of being force-fed financial products that will not help them while at the same time being treated like cattle. The banks are failing people on advice.

But this is dangerous, because as Datamonitor says, many people are simply not getting the advice if they do not go to their bank. Anna Large, financial analyst at Datamonitor says: “Since the onset of the financial crisis two years ago, the numbers who have lost trust in the industry is in large part the result of a general lack of understanding surrounding complex financial products. Often, they simply don’t understand.“

Large says people needs to be educated about banking. If they do not understand finance then it is a lot more likely they will abuse or be abused by the financial products they take out. This leads to financial hardship and debt that may take a long time to pay off.

The key for these disillusioned banking customers, and everyone else in the UK, is to talk to a real person about your personal finances. Whether it be saving, borrowing or insuring, by talking to a professional financial adviser you'll find that everything becomes clearer. They key is to be treated like a real person when it comes to finance, not a customer.

SOURCE: Datamonitor, 23/04/10

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