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Levels of Debt

Debt is something that many people are dealing with day in, day out in the UK, with levels of personal debt being at a historical high point over the recent few years.

Around 8m people in the UK (one in five) have unsecured debts in excess of £10,000, with roughly twenty-five percent of these owing more that ten times this amount.

The vast majority of these people owed money on credit and store cards, with over half of the people having three or more cards, while 3% rather shockingly had more than ten cards that they owed money on.

A little over 20% of people said they owed between £5,000 and £10,000 on their credit cards, with 12% owing between £10,000 and £15,000 and 21% more than £15,000. Switching cards to avoid the interest charges seems to be a popular option, with a third of people regularly moving to benefit from low introductory rates, many of who chose to only pay the minimum amount each month.

While most owed some money on credit cards, many (some 60%) saw the majority of their debt made up of a personal loan, and the credit card debts were a smaller addition to their overall debt.

In terms of repaying these debts, on average people believed that it would take around six years, whist a full one sixth of felt that they would fall further into debt rather than clearing that which they had already amassed either in the form of further credit car debt, personal loans or bank overdrafts.

Debt is increasingly becoming a part of everyday life, with credit so easy to come by these days, it is no surprise that in this ‘instant gratification’ society that people choose to have what they want went they want it, and pay for it at a later date.