Over half of the Europeans who are in a relationship (53%) say their finances are either completely or largely combined, the ING International Survey Savings 2018 survey showed. The percentage increases to 71% in Romania, the highest among the European countries surveyed.

The survey covered 13 countries in Europe, the USA and Australia.

More than half of the Europeans who declared themselves happy in their relationship (55%) said they combine finances with their partner. Meanwhile, a total of 46% of those who said they had problems in their relationship combine finances with their partners, the survey showed.

At the same time, in Romania and Spain, people in couples with separate finances were much less likely to say they are happy than those who combine them.

Most Europeans in a couple felt it was both useful for finances (75%) and beneficial for their relationship (69%) to hold regular household finance meetings. In Romania, 74% of respondents thought a regular finance meeting was helpful for the relationship, while 78% thought it was useful for finances.

When it comes to household savings, the 2018 survey showed 26% of respondents on average across Europe admitted their household had no savings at all. While most countries were close to the average, Romania and Luxembourg were the notable exceptions. A total of 36% of respondents in Romania said they had no household savings, while in Luxembourg only 13% answered the same.

As in previous years, the most common debt type in most countries is a personal loan. The exceptions are Turkey, USA, Australia and the UK, which all have much larger shares with credit card debt than with personal loans. In Romania, 39% said their households had a personal loan, 27% a credit card debt, and 17% had a debt with friends and family.

Among the Romanians who have debts, 56% felt they would struggle to pay these off if interest rates rose. High percentages were also registered in Turkey (48%), Spain (47%) and the USA (47%). This compares to only one in five (19%) of Dutch residents, 21% in the Czech Republic, and 22% in Italy.

Fifteen countries are compared in the ING International Survey Savings 2018 report, with about 1,000 respondents surveyed in each, apart from Luxembourg, with 500. The total sample size of the report is 14,806.

editor@romania-insider.com