Personal
finance - have consumers had a belly full of personal debt?
Released on
= September 5, 2005, 1:27 am
Press Release
Author = Rachel Lane
Industry = Financial
Press Release
Summary = Britain is a little island with a big problem –
consumer debt
Press Release
Body = For months, we were trigger-swipe happy, putting our groceries,
clothes, holidays and service charges on our credit cards. We wanted
mortgages, we took out loans, we watched Property Ladder and What
Not To Wear. Whether you were born middle class, had middle class
aspirations, you became middle class through your spending. Debt
united people around the UK, we sympathised with each other on what
we couldn’t afford – but it didn’t matter, we
still bought it. Soon everybody had a bottle of Jacob’s Creek
in their kitchen and olives and humous in the fridge.
Yet, it would seem as if a debt conscience is setting in. This morning,
The Guardian printed a story based on the fact that Nationwide had
reported a 0.2% decrease in the average house price, whilst the
Times reported on a statement from the Bank of England, showing
that credit-card borrowing was at its slowest rate for more than
four years, with mortgage lending also very static.
According to
the latest Department of Trade and Industry Survey, 5% of individuals
reported finding their household’s debt repayments a “heavy
burden” and 4% of individuals are currently behind in payments
for at least one credit commitment or domestic bill over the past
three months.
According to
Credit Action, in December 2004, 1.2 million electricity and 1 million
gas domestic customers were behind in repaying their debts to their
supplier. Additionally 20% of people say that they often neglect
checking their bank balance because “they are too scared to
find out how much money they have”, according to Lloyds TSB.
Credit Action
also reported that the number of people searching for help to manage
their debts had almost doubled in May in 2005, compared to figures
in May 2004 and a survey from Relate revealed that 44% of couples
find money to be a contentious issue in their relationship and a
quarter of people in debt are receiving treatment for stress, depression
and anxiety from their GP.
It doesn’t
have to be all doom and gloom however. If you’re lucky enough
to have no outstanding debt, you can keep you finances in shape
by exploiting the services of sites such as moneynet, which provide
financial product price comparison information and extensive consumer
information guides. If you have any outstanding debts, you
can seek advice from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS)
or Citizens’ Advice and financial comparison sites like lowermybills
and moneynet also provide detailed research on debt consolidation
loans and debt management.
Resources:
http://www.moneynet.co.uk/credit-card-guide/index.shtml
http://www.creditaction.org.uk/debtstats.htm
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
About Rachel
Rachel writes
for the personalfinanosaurus Cashzilla
http://www.cashzilla.co.uk
Rachel has been
writing personal finance related articles for six months and has
learnt so much about mortgages and life insurance, that nobody invites
her out to dinner anymore. :(
Web Site = http://www.cashzilla.co.uk
Contact Details
= Contact Rachel Lane
E-mail: rachel@positiveinterest.com
Web: http://www.cashzilla.co.uk
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