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10,000 take the first step towards financial health

05 Sep 2011 09:26 GMT

My Money Steps helps 10,000 already this year; More than three quarters of users under 50; 77 per cent in full or part time employment

Online money advice service My Money Steps has helped 10,000 people with their finances already this year. In this time the service has provided nearly 17,000 advice sessions, with one third of users returning to the site for additional help and to update their progress.

My Money Steps, developed by the Money Advice Trust in partnership with Barclaycard, can be found at www.mymoneysteps.org. It provides a personalised financial action plan based on the answers to a series of questions. Users will get email reminders to encourage them to keep up with the plan and can return to the site to update their circumstances, track their progress or get new suggestions on what action to take if their situation changes.

The site has been most popular with people between 35 and 50 years old, with a broader skew towards younger users – more than three quarters of users are between 25 and 50. In contrast with other free debt advice services offered face-to-face or over the telephone, the online service is predominantly used by those in employment, with 77 per cent of registered users recording income for a full or part time job.

Some of the most common pieces of advice offered by the service include how to negotiate reduced mortgage payments with lenders; checking telephone expenditure; and how to find out if you are eligible for benefits or tax credits.

The Money Advice Trust is now encouraging more people to use the site.

Joanna Elson OBE, Chief Executive of the Money Advice Trust, said:

“My Money Steps has already helped a great number of people to get back into financial health, and we believe this is just the start. As well as helping people who might already consider themselves to have a debt problem, we believe the site can play a crucial role in preventing debt problems from developing in the first place.

“We encourage anyone feeling the pinch to use My Money Steps to put together a robust personal or family budget. This can be a tremendous tool in managing your finances, and yet surprisingly few people actually commit their regular income and spending to paper. In the world of debt, prevention is always better than cure – what’s great about My Money Steps is that is can do both.”

My Money Steps testimonials:

Female, London

“My Money Steps returned our peace of mind and did all the hard work for us. We have taken control and completed everything that needed to be done in just a few hours. Brilliant tool… had we come across it sooner we wouldn’t have had as many sleepless nights and arguments.”

Male, Kent

“Using the site was easy, it was clear what needed to be done. I found the ‘my progress’ section really useful, as it meant I could map out and plan what I was doing and the email reminders helped remind me what steps I needed to take.”

Female, West Yorkshire:

“I visited the site to get an understanding of incomings and outgoings and to get a budget. Completing the budget sheet was really easy. The financial statement at the end was a really good way of showing what was left over, which was a really useful piece of information. “

Notes to Editors:

About Money Advice Trust

The Money Advice Trust (MAT) is a charity formed in 1991 to increase the quality and availability of money advice in the UK. MAT’s vision is to contribute to reducing unmanageable debt of UK consumers and its mission is to support individuals in the UK with unmanageable debts and to improve the capacity, quality and efficient delivery of free-to-client independent money advice, through:

  • Co-ordination
  • Influence
  • Direct service provision
  • Training
  • Research
  • Information


About Barclaycard

Barclaycard, part of Barclays Retail and Business Banking, is a leading global payment business which helps consumers, retailers and businesses to make and accept payments flexibly, and to access short-term credit when needed.

The company is one of the pioneers of new forms of payments and is at the forefront of developing viable contactless and mobile payment schemes for today and cutting edge forms of payment for the future.  It also issues credit and charge cards to corporate customers and the UK Government.  Barclaycard partners with a wide range of organisations across the globe to offer their customers or members payment options and credit.

In addition to the UK, Barclaycard operates in the United States, Europe and Africa.

Key facts published in February 2013

-          total number of Barclaycard customers: 28.8m
-          number of retailer/merchant relationships: 89,000
-          Total payments processed: £240bn