Monday 21 February 2011

Personal debt in the UK

The Story of UK Debt Q4 2010

Infographic by Money Debt & Credit

6 comments:

Demetrius said...

This is very scary. Also, it says almost as much about the lenders as about the borrowers.

Man in a Shed said...

Debt is the big issue no one wants to address. The closest they'll come is reducing the govt deficit.

I guess this is why the lets stoke up inflation and pretend its not happening policy comes into play.

Jim said...

Does that include mortgage debt? I can't see it mentioned but I assume it must do.

Of course its worse that the figures suggest - there are millions of people who have no debt. But these averages spread the debt across them too. If you were to take just the people who have debt, and spread the debt across them, the figures would be much worse.

DavidB said...

Its not necessarily as awful as it seems. I run an average credit card debt of about £1900. Some months It can be £3k or £4k but it is always paid off before the end of the month. The true picture is that I use a card as a convenient way to pay for things. It is not a debt that I cannot or won't pay. It is just an account. That is what I assumed I was getting when I got a card. Not a loan. I cannot find the numbers, but I recall reading recently that most people pay the debt off each month in the UK.

As to mortgages. It is never clear in these horror tales if it is or is not included. As the majority of the housebuying public do so by way of mortgage loan on some multiple of income, then again whats the fuss? If we owe 57k on average for houses worth 200k on average, and we earn 20k on average, then thats all good.

Lies, damn lies, etc.

Mark Wadsworth said...

The claim that "46% of personal debt is credit cards" is complete rubbish of course.

85% of household borrowing is residential mortgages, 15% is other bits and pieces.

It may well be that credit card debt is 46% of 15%, but hey.

As ever, the Home-Owner-ists wail that "Young people today don't know the value of money, when I was young we saved a deposit and bought a house" when it is the self-same Home-Owner-Ists who thinnk nothing of expecting every young couple to incur £100,000 more debt to buy a house than they would have done a mere 15 years ago.

At least if you splash out on a store card you get a nice coat or a nice computer or a three-piece suite - but what does that extra £100,000 mortgage get your? Fresh air and future capital losses!!

Anonymous said...

i think the personal debt number covers non mortgage debt.