Don’t rely on credit for household bills, says expert

People should refrain from using credit, loans and overdrafts to pay their household bills, the money education charity Credit Action has said.

Although people have been increasingly using these facilities in the past year, the organisation says that it is not a long-term solution.

Capital Economics recently reported that the share of household income spent on food, bills and other unavoidable costs has risen to 31 per cent from 25 per cent over the past six years.

“It could well be that people who need to find that little bit of extra money to get them to the end of the month or pay the gas bill may revert to credit to do that,” commented Chris Tapp, director of Credit Action.

However, he said that people should be careful of becoming overly reliant on credit since resorting to these measures for long time periods could result them having in serious financial difficulties.

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