Consumer debt continued to increase in 2007
Published On 1 February 2008
New figures suggest that more people could need IVAs in the coming months, as personal debt increased significantly over the course of 2007.Data from Credit Action showed that personal debt in the country increased to £1.4 trillion by the end of December. This means that debt rose by 9.3 per cent over 2007.
What's more, the figures indicated that the amount of interest people are having to pay back on their mortgage, credit card and other borrowing rose 15.1 per cent during the year.
In total, consumers interest repayments increased to a record £94.6 billion.
It added that this meant that more than five million people missed monthly payments on credit cards in the past six months.
The charity also reported that the Insolvency Service has estimated that "111,359 people went into bankruptcy or entered into an (IVA in the last 12 months, an increase of 13 per cent over the previous 12 months".
Recently, Abbey suggested that women were more likely to be "financially overweight" than men. This means that they do not take the time to find the best deals on mortgages, credit cards and loans and so could end up in financial difficulties in the coming years.
