Only 41% of TikTok Users Fact-Check the Financial Advice They Find on the App

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TikTok is great for discovery, but not so much for follow-ups. 

TikTok, a social media platform, has millions of U.S. users. Most scroll through for the laughs, but TikTok is more than a scrollable laugh track. Folks listen to the advice of their favorite streamers on topics ranging from “best burger joints” to “how to build a budget.”

According to a study by Personal Capital, more than half of TikTok users turn to the platform for financial advice. But the same study concludes that only 41% of financial TikTok (FinTok) users fact-check the advice they get through the app.

Why is that?

TikTok isn’t built for deep dives, and it doesn’t allow creators to link directly to their data sources. Creators must paste long, unfriendly links that users then have to copy and paste into Google to search. Linking is tedious for everyone.

Plus, TikTok videos are short. The platform promises users short videos, so most posts are between one and three minutes long. And a whopping 55% of survey respondents said they go to TikTok for financial advice because creators make it digestible. That’s not an entirely bad thing, but it discourages content creators from diving into important details of the financial advice they’re giving.

Worst of all, TikTok users tend to fall for the bandwagon fallacy. In fact, 66% of FinTok users used the number of likes to determine whether a video was trustworthy, according to Personal Capital. Users should consider digging deeper to determine trustworthiness.

It’s not feasible to google every piece of financial advice TikTok gives you. An easier, quicker alternative is checking your sources for a minute or two.

Check your sources

Users who open the app for financial advice should, at the very least, type the names of their favorite personal finance gurus into Google. Do they have a background in finance? Do they put their money where their mouth is? If not, take their advice with a grain of salt and do some extra independent research.

TikTok isn’t a bad place to find financial advice. An app that makes financial literacy accessible is a great thing, a net benefit for society. The trick is ensuring you’re on the “right” side of TikTok. You want helpful wisdom, not view-trolls shrieking for attention.

Curate your feed

TikTok works by showing users a series of videos. The more videos users like, the better TikTok curates. Following a creator boosts the number of times a user encounters that creator’s content. Users can limit their likes and follows to trusworthy TikTok money experts to keep their feeds informative and nonsense-free.

Also Do check out the comments section below the video. Better yet, google the content creator for a quick background check. It’s easy. And it’s better to be safe than sorry when setting up a savings account or paying off debt.

Consider alternatives

TikTok is like Las Vegas: What happens on TikTok stays on TikTok. When turning to TikTok for investing advice, users say they ended up following the advice only 30% of the time, according to Personal Capital. That suggests users may not find the advice actionable or trustworthy.

Financial literacy apps are great alternatives to FinTok. The best financial literacy apps can help users pay off debt or turbocharge savings. Users deserve the best advice when it comes to getting smart about money. Why limit yourself to TikTok?

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