Debt “completely out of hand”

Levels of debt in the UK have been labelled “completely out of hand” by financial advisors Chase De Vere.

Customers were advised to be “totally sensible” when purchasing credit cards, and to moderate their spending once receiving them.

Chase De Vere savings manager Susan Hannums also warned consumers not to fall for lenders’ advertising ploys, saying that “you can try and drum home the message – and we play a big part in doing that – but in a lot of cases people only really pay attention when they absolutely have to act.”

There are several ways in which credit providers can sell their products by making attractive headline offers, and recouping on them by ‘hidden’ costs.

A prime example of this comes with the “zero per cent” cards, which charge transfer fees to offset their attractive interest deal. This financial sleight of hand has netted banks £240 million in transfer fees last year, according to This Is Money.

Tags: interest rates, uk, financial sleight, credit providers, Chase, Business Finance, finance, De Vere savings