More than one in five 18-24 year olds (21 per cent) store PINs for credit or debit cards on their smartphones, tablets or laptops, according to research conducted by Equifax in conjunction with Gorkana.

In the same survey of 500 people across all ages more than a third of young adults (38 per cent) said they also use their personal devices to store online passwords.

The habit leaves young adults more exposed to online scams in cases where their devices are stolen or hacked.

Once a device is breached, fraudsters can use data stored on it to access accounts, and also use a combination of data found to try to steal an individual’s identity.

Across all age groups, 16 per cent store passwords on personal devices, followed by PINs (10 per cent), bank account number/sort codes (10 per cent) and answers to security questions for online accounts (6 per cent).

Almost twice as many males as females are likely to store passwords and PINs on their devices (21 per cent compared to 11 per cent, and 14 per cent compared to seven per cent respectively). ®