Sometimes, I humor my bank by taking one of their surveys. The surveys usually come with small incentives (I participate in focus groups to get extra cash) to entice customers to participate. Of course, they can become intrusive. By this point, I choose not to offer details to their questions. A bank probably already has information about most other assets I own through transactions.
As you can see, a third party named Financial Health Network helped conduct the survey. On the surface, it seems like a genuine non-profit organization aimed at helping people. I'm sure there's a method to the madness, but I couldn't care less. The health score doesn't mean anything to me since they didn't explain why I received the score I did.
It's like the credit score report I got as part of another survey months ago. It also gave me a simulator to go with it, but I can't seem to get any higher than my current score. The survey didn't even tell me what I could do to get closer to the fabled 850.
When I dove into who funds these guys, I raise my eyebrow. It didn't surprise me that big banks and the Gates Foundation are part of this initiative. Add in the likes of Intuit and Visa, and the list of sponsors resembled more of a circlejerk. It smelled of the debt trap. I'm not trying to be conspiratorial, but being in crypto and precious metals convinced me that I shouldn't place all my eggs in these financial institutions. Of course, this is not financial advice.
The cynical me says that the "harmless" surveys are means by which they try to gather data on where your transactions and money are going. Don't be too specific when you fill them out.
