Do your finances follow the TV stars?

Is your life a financial soap opera? Are you like East Enders' character Pat Butcher who struggles to pay back credit or do you have more in common with wealthy Rodney Blackstock in Emmerdale Farm who has savings and investments and is a paragon of virtue when it comes to managing his finances?

Apparently, around 16% of us have the financial traits of Pat Butcher, according to research by CreditExpert. It analysed the financial attitudes of six soap characters and, using its database of information, compared their characteristics to our financial behaviour.

Pat Butcher, it says, suffers from lapses in financial control - hardly surprising as she is a manager of a bookie shop. She's got into the bad habit of spending without thinking. Living like this can lead to wrack and ruin. Pat could improve her situation by regularly monitoring her accounts online to watch that spending and paying off those debts as quickly as possible.

Transferring balances on expensive credit cards to 0% cards would greatly benefit her, as long as she remembers that the rates go up at the end of the special offer period.

Current zero rate deals include Virgin Money which charges 0% for 13 months on balance transfers, after which the interest rate goes up to 15.9% for purchases and 24.9% for cash. Tesco, too, offers 0% but for 12 months while its 'go to' rates are slightly lower at 14.9% for purchases and 20.85% for cash. But there's a catch - most providers now charge 2-3% of the outstanding balance on transfers. In these cases, Virgin charges 2.89% of the balance and Tesco takes 2%.

As a widow and thrice times divorced, Pat ought to think about saving for the short-term and for her retirement as well.

At the other end of the scale, 15% of us have financial habits similar to the likes of Rosemary King in Emmerdale and 10% with Ian Beale in EastEnders. Rosemary is a comfortably well-off widow who is cautious with money, while Ian is a real survivor. He's been let down by women in fact almost murdered by one and made bankrupt, but recovered and set up another Beale Empire. He's got good financial habits, he waits for a business bargain, pays his bills on time, manages his money well and has savings.

Rodney Blackstock from Emmerdale has real financial nous, a trait found in around 7% of us, said CreditExpert. He's got a successful career and he's wealthy, generous with the ladies but still has savings and investments. But he should remember to take advantage of all the tax breaks he can get and make sure he uses his individual savings account (ISA) allowance of up to £7,000 and his capital gains allowance of £9,200.