Launch of Credit Confidence Survey

Despite UK consumer debt reaching the £1.1 trillion mark, three quarters (75%) of British borrowers claim to be 'comfortable' with their current level of borrowing. Research was conduced by Ipsos MORI for Experian's Personal Credit Index, a new feature of its online credit monitoring service CreditExpert.

Eighty-five per cent of all adults generally say they are confident about paying household or credit/store card bills on time and keeping up with any mortgage, loan or other credit agreement repayments they have.

The inaugural research polled c.2,000 people across Great Britain and will track consumers' current credit confidence and future expectations on a quarterly basis, establishing Britain's first ever consumer credit confidence index.

For the coming six months, consumer confidence is high, with a third (32%) of borrowers expecting to decrease their current level of debts. Only one in ten (11%) expect an increase. Of the 13% who are uncomfortable with their current level of debt, half (51%) expect this to decrease in the next six months.

Seven out of ten (70%) of 'financially-confident' British borrowers, whose debts have decreased in the past six months, expect to reduce their debt even further in the coming months.

London's high house prices, which are on average 50% higher than the UK average, combined with the higher cost of living in the capital, appear to be having a significant impact on credit confidence. The net confidence of Londoners about meeting their monthly household bills and repayments on time is rated as just 47% in contrast to all other regions, where confidence rates range from 74% in the East Midlands to 91% in the South West.

According to Jim Hodgkins, Managing Director of CreditExpert, 'The Personal Credit Index will provide a valuable benchmark of consumers' attitudes towards borrowing and their perceptions of their credit situation and will track changes in Britain's ever-changing credit climate. It's important that we keep track of our credit commitments to ensure we're borrowing within our means and are aware of any changes to our credit report that could impact our future borrowing power.'

Further information can be found at www.personalcreditindex.co.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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