Debt in the UK is "completely out of hand"
Published On 9 August 2007
While consumer debt levels in the UK are "completely out of hand", people only tend to act when their personal situation reaches crisis point, an industry expert has said.With recent figures suggesting that consumer debt in the UK has exceeded £1.3 trillion this year, Susan Hannums, a savings manager at AWD Chase De Vere, has warned that people only address their own borrowing when forced to.
She explained: "People only tend to become wise to debt when the debt catches up with them.
"I think that interest rates have gone up and people are feeling the pinch with mortgage rates and debt across the board.
"You've just got to be totally sensible. Debt in this country is completely out of hand. At some point you've got to start clawing back and be sensible with your spending."
Recently, Adrian Kidd, spokesperson for Mint Financial Services, said that consolidating existing debt with a single loan can be an effective way for people to manage their borrowing.
He added that "with a loan you are given the time and you know that within five or seven years it will be gone", while simply paying off the interest on credit cards and other borrowing "is a fairly suffocating process".
