Key statistics which shows month-by-month trends, include:
- £55,795 is the average household debt (including mortgages)
- £29,532 is the average amount owed by every UK adult (including mortgages)
- £174m is the personal interest paid in UK daily
- CAB deal with 8,910 new debt problems each working day
- 1,644 people are made redundant daily
- 867,000 people have been unemployed for more than 12 months
- £22.54m is the daily write-offs of loans by banks & building societies
- Every 14.6 minutes a property is repossessed
- £130,700,000 is the daily increase in Government national debt (PSDN)
- £1,278,000,000 is the total value of all purchases made using plastic cards today
- £67.25 is the amount it costs to fill a car with a 50-litre tank with unleaded petrol
According to Credit Action's calculations, data for September reveals that UK households paid out a total of £174m in interest payments on personal debt every day. This is down on the £175m figure calculated for August, suggesting that the burden of interest payments eased very slightly.
However, this comes as a range of other factors continue to squeeze household budgets. Inflation reached record levels in September, while unemployment climbed to 2.57 million during the three months to August.
Keith Tondeur OBE, President of Credit Action says:
"While the Bank of England shows no signs of raising the base rate in the near future, consumers still need to be careful about the rates of interest they pay, particularly given the range of other pressures they are also dealing with at the moment.
"Over the next month, families will increasingly be turning their attention towards Christmas.
"During this period, it's inevitable that some will look to borrow to fund the celebrations. We would urge those that do to shop around to ensure they get the best deal on credit, and stress that you should never borrow more than you can afford to pay back.
"Budgeting is an important way of determining what you can and can't afford when times are tight, and tools like our Budget Builder can help consumers stay in control of their finances throughout the festive season."
