Background & Purpose of the article: The research paper raises important issues in the field of consumer financial literacy in Poland. The authors note that efforts made in financial education are not fully effective and the number of wrong decisions made by consumers is high. The study led to two interesting observations: high self-assessment of knowledge is not confirmed in practice. The mistakes made do not result solely from the lack of knowledge of consumers. They are very often a result of their personality and a way of perceiving reality. Methods: The authors compared Polish and foreign research results in the field of financial literacy and the study of financial knowledge of Polish consumers conducted in 2024. The conducted research was not limited only to “self-assessment” but it contained a pool of questions verifying the practical knowledge and behavior of consumers in the financial market. Findings & value added: The study confirmed that despite a declared financial knowledge and experience in using financial products & services, consumers make important mistakes, and overestimate their knowledge: they do not read credit agreements, do not compare financial products, their financial knowledge is assumed and much lower than declared. It implies the need to ensure an adequate – higher – level of institutional protection in the financial market. The analysis of interactions between knowledge, experience and practice on the financial market allows us to identify the educational gap. The results of the analysis could provide direction for other researchers on in-depth research on the impact of heuristics on consumer behavior in the financial market and their correlation with the level of knowledge and institutional protection in the financial market.
Bień et al. (2024) studied this question.