Debt repayments rising
The average British adult now spends 53 per cent of their take home pay on debt repayments, according to the findings of a new survey.
Research commissioned by the price comparison service uSwitch.com discovered that on average mortgage repayments account for 35 per cent of monthly take home pay and other credit commitments take up 18 per cent.
It also found 18 per cent of people believe their level of borrowing is no longer manageable and that a further 23 per cent believe it to be close to becoming unmanageable.
As a result, 12 per cent of people have missed at least one mortgage, unsecured personal loan, credit card or store card repayment in the past six months.
The service's director of consumer policy Ann Robinson warned that some banks are also suffering and that their problems will impact on the ability of people with financial worries to borrow money.
She explained: "The banks are being forced to write-off vast sums and, as a result, they are tightening their lending belts. This means that credit will become both harder for consumers to get and more expensive."
The Daily Mail recently advised people who have had problems with mortgage arrears that they should still be able to obtain credit if they look hard enough, as some lenders are "sympathetic to the odd blemish".
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.