Latest Debt News
The latest news on consumer debt:
October 8, 2007
According to banks, those on the verge of bankruptcy trying to free themselves from debt may be thrown a lifeline.
There will be a change in the Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVA) industry over the next few years. It will help those living on a tight budget to escape bankruptcy. IVAs are an alternative to bankruptcy and the allow people with ...
A helping hand for those in debt
by Kay Murchie
October 4, 2007
An analyst at Moneyfacts.co.uk has commented that many people are not realising that their debt could outlive them. Credit cards are useful if used wisely but many fall into the trap of only paying the minimum payment each month.
Falling minimum repayments and rising interest rates mean people are spreading debt over a longer period of time with some months not even ...
Many facing a lifetime of debt
by Kay Murchie
September 25, 2007
Research from Moneysupermarket.com, the comparison site, have discovered that consolidating existing debts is a waste of time as those doing so will end up owing even more money.
The research showed that over 8 million people consolidating debt end up taking on more and over 5 million believe that they will always be in debt.
Moneysupermarket.com established that 12.7 million of Britons have ...
Debt spiralling out of control
by Kay Murchie
Crackdown on consumer credit
by Kay Murchie
September 21, 2007
A £3 million crackdown on loan shark lending has been launched and specially trained teams have the task of tracing illegal lenders. John Hutton, Business Secretary, said that the crackdown will bring dishonest lenders to justice.
In the last 3 years, specialist trading standards officers and the police have tracked down 200 loan sharks and shut down loan books of over £3 ...
A crackdown on loan sharks
by Kay Murchie
September 13, 2007
Figures published by The Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) have shown that enquiries about debt in England and Wales have reached an all-time high.
In the past 12 months, the CAB reported a 20% growth in debt enquiries bringing the total number to 1.7 million – twice the level of that a decade ago. For the CAB this means that consumers’ concerns over ...
Enquiries about debt at record high
by Kay Murchie
September 11, 2007
Research by CreditExpert has established that 31% of British grandparents are providing financial assistance to their grandchildren in order to get them on to the property ladder. 11% of British grandparents have expressed concern that the child’s parents are unable to provide adequate financial support.
547 British grandparents over the age of 40 were surveyed and 26% of them ...
First-time buyers receiving financial help from grandparents
by Kay Murchie
September 10, 2007
Research by Chiltern, the debt management group, has shown that 1 in 16 consumers in the UK use over a quarter their monthly income to pay off debts and according to government guidelines, this is the stage at which people become over-indebted.
However, when questioned about their finances, over 30% of these people claimed not to have a problem. The research by Chiltern ...
Britons in denial about debt
by Kay Murchie
August 31, 2007
Around 12 million Britons get into debt paying for their yearly holiday according to Experian and those that pay for holidays on their credit cards could end up paying an average of 17% - way after the sun tan has worn off.
Travel insurance company InsureandGo has established that the average UK holidaymaker spent just over £800 on holiday this year. ...
Britons in debt paying for holidays
by Kay Murchie
August 28, 2007
The current lack of money in the debt markets is likely to cause a sudden increase in the amount of people in the UK who are denied mortgages, loans and credits. The shortage of money is caused by the crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage market.
Last year, 7 million UK consumers were denied credit and this figure is expected to reach 8.6 million ...
Gloomy outlook for debtors
by Kay Murchie
August 22, 2007
When I first set up in business a few years ago, I had no idea what my annual income would be.
Tax Credits were still relatively new, but they wouldn't take an estimate of my income.
And I couldn't give an exact income figure until my accounts were finished at the end of the tax year.
Which meant being able to provide an income figure that the ...
Tax credits overpayment
by Brian Turner
August 16, 2007
Online Gambling is becoming an increasingly popular form of gambling and there are now an estimated 1,700 gambling websites on the Internet.
However, whilst many people gamble online without any problems GamCare has started to see an increase in the amount of people contacting their helpline and counselling services who are losing control of their gambling online.
In addition, the Insolvency Service ...
Internet gambling plunging people into debt
by Kay Murchie
August 15, 2007
The charity, Credit Action, estimated individual UK debt at £1.3 trillion and is therefore urging people to be organised in managing their finances.
It anticipates that most people in the UK have 2 or 3 bank accounts and that many lose track of their money through family changes, moving house or getting divorced. This opinion is backed by the amount of inactive ...
People urged to manage their finances
by Kay Murchie
Legal action threatened on IVA charges
by Kay Murchie
August 14, 2007
The Alliance Trust's Financial Reality Index, which studies economic activity, household budgets, and net wealth, showed an improvement in the second quarter of 2007. The index rose from 73.7 to 82, however, it still remains under the dangerous level of 100, where it has declined for 3 years.
According to the report, there is now a critical difference between the benign conditions that ...
Consumer spending continues to rise
by Kay Murchie
August 10, 2007
Debt in the UK is reaching levels that are out of hand, according to AWD Chase de Vere. The independent financial adviser has claimed that many people are only aware of debt when it catches up with them, in spite of warnings over unmanageable credit repayments.
A spokesperson for AWD Chase de Vere commented that an increasing amount of ...
UK debt is out of control
by Kay Murchie
August 6, 2007
In the second quarter of 2007, there were 26,596 individual insolvencies, this comprised 10,698 IVAs (Individual Voluntary Arrangements) and 16,258 bankruptcies.
With the cost of living increasing and interest rates reaching a 6-year high, uSwitch.com reveals that individual insolvencies could reach a record high of 112,588 by the end of 2007.
A spokesperson for uSwitch.com, the online price comparison and switching service, commented that ...
Individual insolvencies expected to soar
by Kay Murchie
June 22, 2007
A new survey from consumer website MoneyExpert indicates that more people are missing monthly repayments on personal loans, risking serious debt. The report shows that nearly 250,000 people per month have missed monthly payments in the past six months - a total of 1,389,000 payments, or three percent of all loan repayments due during that time period. The problem ...
Report: More missing personal loan repayments
by Elaine Frei
June 19, 2007
A new survey by Alliance & Leicester (LSE: AL) has discovered that youth in the UK are seeing their educational options limited by their reluctance to go into debt. The study found that 43 percent of those aged 16 to 24 said that they decided to forego a university education because they were concerned about the amount of ...
More UK youth skipping university to avoid debt
by Elaine Frei
June 11, 2007
UK money education charity Credit Action has warned that the wide prevalence of student loans has helped create an environment in which high levels of debt has come to be seen as acceptable. A spokesperson for the charity said that it isn’t a matter of most graduates having to stretch their budgets to pay off their loans. Instead the ...
Report: Student loans make debt “acceptable”
by Elaine Frei
