Message For Youth

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday November 15, 2006

By SARAH-KATE SCICLUNA

ALMOST 90 per cent of Australian 15- to 17-year-olds own a mobile phone, but the age group has difficulty calculating everyday running costs of phone ownership.

The data came to light yesterday with the release of the 2006 Australian Financial Literacy Assessment, which showed young people were struggling with basic financial knowledge.

The assessment, which was done by the Commonwealth Bank Foundation, found half the 50,000 students assessed could not interpret a table that compared mobile phone plans.

It found 46 per cent could not identify mobile phone call costs in the fine print and 49 per cent failed to calculate savings on SMS messages.

This is despite 14- to 18-year-olds being the main users of SMS.

On a positive note, the assessment found 88 per cent of year 9 and 10 students could identify when they were entitled to a refund. Seventy-five per cent could identify a security feature for online shopping.

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ralph Norris said about 19,200 students from NSW took part in the assessment.

"Australian youth are relatively savvy consumers but sometimes lack the financial skills to back up their consumer awareness," he said.

The survey results have prompted the foundation to form a youth advisory council to recommend options on educating young people on financial skills.

The council includes Young Australian of the Year 2005 Khoa Do and BHP Billiton human resources adviser Jahna Cedar.

CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE

NSW students performed best in the following areas:

Finding a credit card's expiry date.

Identifying car running costs.

Recognising technical terms in a business relationship.

Understanding jobs needed qualifications.

Identifying the pay period used on a pay slip.

© 2006 Newcastle Herald

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