Higher earners juggle the most debt repayments

New research from Oakbrook has found that the most complex repayment profiles in its dataset belong to higher earners in middle age. The data highlighted that applicants aged 45 to 54 earning £50,000 or more manage five or more separate credit repayments a month, the highest of any group measured.

Across the population measured, applicants make an average of 3.5 separate credit repayments a month across 3.8 active credit products, paying £292 a month or £3,502 a year towards those commitments and using 48% of the revolving credit available to them. Complexity rises from fewer than two repayments a month among 18 to 24-year-olds to more than four between 45 and 54, before easing towards retirement.

The UK Debt Repayment Complexity Index 2026 measures how many separate agreements a borrower services each month rather than how much they owe. The distinction matters because a missed payment spread across several agreements can be an administrative failure rather than an affordability one, and the two need different remedies.

The Index is built from 4,299,599 anonymised applicant-month credit records covering applications to Oakbrook brands over 12 months. The figures describe people applying for credit in the UK rather than UK adults generally, and the sample is not nationally representative. The 2026 edition is the first and reports a level rather than a trend.

Claire Smith, Marketing Director at Oakbrook said “More money doesn’t necessarily mean simpler finances. We’ve spent years talking about how much people owe. Perhaps we also need to start talking about how complicated we’ve made borrowing to manage.”