Money Statistics: March 2023

Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for March 2023 Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1,837.4 billion at the end of January 2023. The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,434 and per adult was £34,546, around 105.2% of average earnings. Net mortgage lending rose by…

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Household debt passes £2tn

For the first time household debt  has risen to over £2 trillion, which is almost the equivalent to the UK’s GDP. The fresh findings, from PwC’s Strategy& UK Consumer Credit Confidence report, also shows that UK consumers struggle to answer basic financial multiple choice questions. This is despite 88% of consumers reporting that they felt…

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Four in ten use credit to cover essentials as consumer spending grows

Inflation and rising bills mean households are spending 12% more on essentials than they were a year ago, with almost four in 10 people having to use credit cards to cover these costs, research by Nationwide Building Society data shows. The monthly Spending Report analysed around 208 million debit card, credit card and Direct Debit…

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Interest rate increases for 11th consecutive time – credit industry reaction

The Bank of England has raised interest rates for an 11th consecutive time to 4.25% following the surprise rise in inflation. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted for this change by a majority of 7-2, with the minority vote wishing to keep the rate at 4%. Commenting on the rise, Paul Broadhead, Head of Mortgage…

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Younger adults rely more heavily on debt to weather cost of living crisis

24th March 2023 Arrears and Recoveries |

The cost of living crisis looks set to deepen generational financial inequality as Gen Z and millennials are four times more likely to need to take on new debt this year to meet rising costs according to research by Credit Karma The research found that nearly three quarters (70%) of UK currently use credit, holding…

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Rise in customers missing two credit card payments

New data from FICO has revealed that there was a 13.6 per cent rise in customers missing two credit card payments from December 2022 to January 2023. The figures also that accounts missing one payment fell by 0.7% in the same period. Average total sales per card down 8 percent compared to December 2022 at…

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Two in five are concerned about paying household bills

Two in five (41%) young adults are worried about their ability to pay household bills at a time when many costs are set to rise over the coming months, according to Comparethemarket’s latest Household Financial Confidence Tracker. As the cost of living has risen over the past 12 months, 44% of 18 to 24-year-olds feel…

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One in five homeowners remortgaging for debt consolidation

One in five (22%) homeowners planning to remortgage this year are borrowing more money to consolidate their debts according to research by Uswitch. The research found that well over a third (39%) of people are planning to borrow more money when they remortgage. The over 55s are the most likely to borrow more money when…

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One in six people has less than £20 to live on after monthly expenses

20th March 2023 Arrears and Recoveries |

New YouGov polling by StepChange Debt Charity has revealed the state of household finances over a year into the cost of living crisis, with people imminently facing higher council tax, less support with energy bills and increased rent or mortgage payments. StepCange says that the survey examines the toll that the cost of living crisis…

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BUDGET 2023 – consumer credit sector reaction

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced the Spring budget for 2023. Commenting on budget, Credit Services Association (CSA) Chief Executive Chris Leslie said: “For the collections sector, Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget has greatest relevance in its impact on the surplus money people have at their disposal and the cost-of-living squeeze that may affect an individual’s ability…

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Households continue to borrow and increasingly falling into debt

As households grapple with the rising cost of living, the latest update to Lowell’s Financial Vulnerability Index (FVI), a tool used to measure and track financial resilience across the UK based on anonymised data from over 9.5 million Lowell customer accounts and other publicly available data, has shown that households are continuing to borrow and…

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Second charge mortgage volumes grew by 8% in January

Second charge mortgage new business volumes grew by 8% in January 2023 according to the latest Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) data. Commenting on the latest new business figures for the second charge mortgage market, Geraldine Kilkelly, Director of Research and Chief Economist at the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA), said “The second charge mortgage…

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FCA announces help for struggling mortgage borrowers

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed final mortgage guidance, setting out the ways mortgage lenders can help customers worried about or already struggling with their mortgage payments because of the rising cost of living. The regulator has also published new data and analysis on the mortgage market. This shows that, in addition to the…

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