Study title

Collection consists of data collected within the loan application form that the credit unions use to assess loan applications. The aim was to investigate if contemplation can improve the financial information that credit union loan applicants provide? Our rationale for focusing on this financial behavior in this group was four-fold. Firstly, people generally (see above; Santander, 2016) and this group specifically (as identified by staff at the credit union) have a tendency to underestimate their expenditure. Secondly, contemplation potentially encourages a degree of self-reflection, a process associated with greater self-control and self-regulation (Howell and Shepperd, 2013). This suggests that after contemplation, decision-making will be more thorough, detailed and personally beneficial (Yeung and Summerfield, 2012). In other words, contemplating expenditure may encourage people to give more accurate estimates of expenditure. Thirdly, staff used expenditure to help decide if the client could afford the loan they were applying for. Thus, a more accurate estimate of expenditure would benefit the staff in terms of the expediency of the loan application process. Finally, we propose that using such a sample was a more vigorous test of contemplation than occurred in our earlier studies. In that, the people who went to this credit union likely had more complex financial and social histories than the students and university staff who participated in Studies 1 and 2. For example, ~87% of credit loan applicants were in receipt of child benefit, 58% were not employed (vs. 5.1% National Average; Office for National Statistics, 2016), 63% had been in receipt of a social fund loan, and 67% have used high cost lenders (see Table 1). Unfortunately, an analysis of peoples financial histories and behaviors has identified a relationship between these demographic factors and poor financial management (i.e., ineffective planning for financial event, and having less self-efficacy...