UK Credit Card Debt – Cause For Concern

The north west of England is looked upon as a hot bed of debt, with over 50% of the consumers with financial problems, owing the equivalent of a full years salary or even more. Which is more than most in the rest of the country.

The biggest factor in this has been attributed to the credit card, which has led to overspending by the holders of the credit card.

It has been found that people in the north west who have debt, are earning an average of £21,120 but are running up debts of £34,550, that is 61% more debt than they are taking in income annually. But the worrying statistic may be the findings that some have debt, more than double of their yearly earnings.

These findings came from a website that was set up to help people with debt worries and to keep them from bankruptcy. ClearDebt.co.uk based heir figures on the people who contact them through the website and feel that because the findings are on the people who have contacted them about their debts, feel that the eventual findings are a true measure of the debt problems of the area, if not the whole of Britain.

The amount of debt in the U.K is really starting to become a cause for concern, with an announcement last week that Bankruptcy has increased quite rapidly in the last year, with an almost 25% jump to 10,091 on the same period of last year. 2,500 bankruptcies are a large rise and should be looked at very seriously to try and stop it from getting completely out of hand.

The main reason for the increase in the people going under in a financial avalanche, has been laid at the door of customers themselves, who cant simply keep up with the payments on the credit cards and loans that they have accrued and these don’t just include credit cards from the original sources such as banks and building society’s, but also those of stores and supermarkets, in a market that is becoming evermore competitive.

The total consumer debt for the month of February was up £1.7 billion to £185.3 billion, with the total of credit card debt for the same month, sitting at £54.3 billion, the need for debt seems to be un-relentless.

Paying minimum payments could be many a consumers downfall, as paying your debt like this will only lead to taking years to even pay off a debt that is as little as £300, so paying as much as you can to your debt may leave you a bit short, but will save you money in the long haul.