Jargon ''should be restricted on financial products''

By MoneyhighStreet Staff. Published on July 27, 2008 This post currently has no comments.

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There is a growing recognition from the companies that offer financial products such as mortgages and credit cards that they need to clearly explain the different deals and services available, an industry expert has said.

Gill Stephens of National Savings and Investments (NS&I) was commenting after a study showed that 35 per cent of people said they found certain financial concepts and terms hard to understand.

The spokesperson said that lenders and other financial institutions were beginning to realise they had a responsibility to make sure consumers clearly understood the terminology on the deals they were signing up for.

"I think the financial industry is recognising that they need to make things simple for people," Ms Stephens added.

"The use of terminology does scare people off … In order to make things simple, the use of jargon needs to be restricted."

However, Ms Stephens acknowledged that many financial institutions only added "financial jargon because they need to".

Recently, Donald MacLeod, head of cards at Sainsbury''s Finance, said that many lenders made it too hard for consumers to claim the cashback and reward deals they accrued when using their credit cards.