It Costs More To Be A Financially-Illiterate Woman Than A Man

A survey by FINRA, the largest independent securities regulator in the US, has found that, overall, women pay higher interest rates on credit cards than men by .5%. The half a point may look small, but means that over the course of a lifetime, women could be paying as much as thousands of dollars more to borrow money than men do.

Additionally, women with low levels of financial literacy are more vulnerable to credit card mismanagement than men with the same back-asswards knowledge of personal budgeting—specifically, they are more likely to pay only the minimum, carry over a debt, incur late fees and comparison shop for more cost-effective or realistic credit cards. You can check this infographic for more explicit, if facepalm-worthy, details.

One explanation of this could be the simple reality of gender-pricing, a term employed to indicate the heightened cost of many day-to-day or essential women’s products and services (from dry-cleaning to health insurance to shampoo).

But for the financially literate, it evens out, and the gap disappears. FINRA estimates that an increased rate of financial literacy would improve women’s credit card behavior by 60%, not to mention encouraging savings and retirement planning. So, well, shit. Those of you who don’t understand your own credit, get on it. Especially you singles, since we’re already fucked as it is.