Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for April 2017:
Personal debt in the UK
People in the UK owed £1.524 trillion at the end of February 2017. This is up from £1.476 trillion at the end of February 2016 – an extra£964.450 per UK adult.
Based on February 2017 trends, the UK’s total interest repayments on personal debt over a 12 month period would have been £50.440 billion.
Outstanding consumer credit lending was £196 billion at the end of February 2017.
Total net lending to individuals by UK banks and building societies rose by £4.9 billion in February 2017 – or £175m a day.
Every day, on average, 41 people were made bankrupt, 68 Debt Relief Orders were granted, and 139 Individual Voluntary Arrangements were entered into.
Spending and Loans
During January 2017 an average of 494 purchases were made in the UK every second using debit and credit cards, based on figures from the UK Cards Association.
Meanwhile, data from LINK shows that, on average, 104 cash machine transactions (including balance enquiries and rejected transactions) were made every second in March 2017;
The average interest rate on credit card lending bearing interest was 18.48% in February. This is 18.23% above the Bank of England Base Rate (0.25%).
The average APR for a £5,000 personal loan is 8.81%, according to the Bank of England. For a £10,000 loan it’s 3.66%, while the average rate for an overdraft is 19.70%.
Mortgages, rent and housing
Outstanding mortgage lending stood at £1.328 trillion at the end of February. This is up from £1.294 trillion a year earlier.
The average mortgage interest rate was 2.63% at the end of February. Based on this, households with mortgages would pay an average of £3,154 in mortgage interest over the year.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), the typical first-time buyer deposit in January was 15.7% (around £28,552) – 108% of an average salary.
The average monthly rent for a two-bedroom house in England was£600 – in London this was £1,500 (150% higher).
