THE nation is edging ever nearer to a debt nightmare. According to the Registry Trust, up to a million households will face court action over their debts this year.
Figures from the not-for-profit company reveal that 247,187 debt-related judgements were issued against individuals in the first three months of this year, almost a 10 per cent increase on the same period last year.
With rising house prices forcing homebuyers to take out enormous mortgages added to rises in interest rates and rising council tax and energy bills, the nation’s household debt now tops an incredible £1 trillion and things look likely to get even worse.
A spokesman for the National Debtline charity questioned the behaviour of banks, saying, “The question is whether it is irresponsible lending or irresponsible borrowing. It is down to both. We would like to see more responsible lending.”
Peter Tutton of Citizen’s Advice is concerned by the growing number of creditors skipping negotiations with debtors and going straight to court action. Says he: “Our concern is that creditors are using court action rather than trying to negotiate with debtors. Court action adds greatly to the costs and hardship people in debt face. Creditors should always try to negotiate in line with industry standards before resorting to such action.”
Take care. Read the small print. And sleep on it…
BT staff have missed out on a £25million windfall as customer dissatisfaction continues to grow.
Posted: 31st, May 2007 | In: Money Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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June 14th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
I think it’s time for a radical solution to the problem of personal debt. We need a debt amnesty, on the lines of a gun amnesty or a knife amnesty. For a certain period of time, if you owe money, you should be able to take your mortgage documents, credit card statements, outstanding utility bills and so on to the local Police Station, hand them over to the officer on duty, fill in a simple form and never see them again.