Credit card borrowing falls
February 20, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Credit-Cards
The amount of money we borrow on credit cards fell in January, with industry experts saying this shows we are all managing our finances better.
Figures from the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BBA) show that borrowing on credit cards fell by £0.5 billion in the first month of 2007.
This is despite increases elsewhere across the board, with mortgage lending rising by £5.6 billion and total UK lending to the private sector growing by £21.9 billion.
A lack of borrowing on credit cards is being seen as a positive sign that personal finances are being better managed by the majority of the population.
“We can see that the January sales did not encourage borrowing on credit cards,” said David Dooks, director of statistics at BBA.
“As in the second half of last year, card borrowing is contracting and, with weaker retail sales being reported, this reflects the consumer’s current attitude to spending and their commitments.”
The BBA has also revealed that levels of unsecured personal lending were unchanged in January.
Figures for mortgage lending were in line with the monthly average increases for the last six months, with Mr Dooks saying that the rise was expected.
“Mortgage lending continued to be buoyant, as we expected following the high volumes of approvals in the final quarter of last year,” he added.
