Cardholders seeking help for personal debt problems

24/07/2007

In Wales, the Legal Services Commission had unconstrained figures showing the number of people seeking help via personal debt. This sector has increased as interest rates have soared.

This came forward as research highlighted another shock of rates, which hit 5.75 per cent earlier this month. Cardholders were paying the bare minimum on repayments leaving their credit card dragging for 30 years. It has only left cardholders paying interest for a longer period of time.

In South Wales there are many cardholders who are appearing county court due to credit problems.

Director of Legal Services Commission Paul Davies in Wales, said: “More and more people are reporting being three months or more behind with payments on their regular commitments and the average personal debt of visitors to advice agencies has topped £30,000.”

A personal finance expert at uSwitch.com, Mike Naylor  showed that credit card debtors may be paying off their debts for 30 years, said warnings were not well publicised enough.

He added: “Consumers could now finish repaying their mortgage before their credit card, despite the huge disparity in sums borrowed.”