Debt stats and polls

Not my usual sort of post, but two press releases came past my desk today which I thought I would re-publish just because I found them very interesting. They aren't my numbers, and I haven't checked them.

The first was from Credit Action, a charity which released debt statistics as follows:

In the 12 months leading up to July 2013, UK Bank and Building Societies wrote-off £3.67 billion of loans to individuals; the lowest amount for over 6 years. In Q2 of this year, they wrote-off £694 million, of which £371 million was credit card debt - amounting to a daily write-off £7.61m. The total write-offs have continued to follow a steady downward trend since 2012, but the Q2 fall is the most significant since mid-2011.

Latest figures include:

- £54,110: average household debt (including mortgages) in July, up from £54,014 in June

- £6,005: average household debt (excluding mortgages) in June, up from £5,931 in June

- £164 million of interest was paid every day on personal debt in July

- £1.432 billion: daily value of all plastic card purchases in June

- 1,348 people were made redundant every day between April and June

- 909,000 people had been unemployed for over a year, between April and June

- Every 5 minutes 7 seconds someone was declared bankrupt or insolvent

- £1.426 trillion was the value of outstanding personal debt at the end of July, up from the same period last year

- £68.75: the cost to fill a 50 litre tank with unleaded petrol in July

- Every 17 min 4 sec a property is repossessed  The second, perhaps less reliably, was from uSwitch, who claimed the following figures on the back of an online poll of 2,000 adults in July 2013:

- 24% will take at least three years to pay off their debt - 7% of these don't think they'll ever be debt-free  [FWIW, 7% of 24% is 1.68%, to save you working it out...]

- Aside from mortgages and students loans, the average Brit has debts of £2,423 - this climbs to £3,385 for 25-34 year-olds

- Those earning between £40,000 and £70,000 owe an average of £3,000 each - £577 more than the average Brit

- Despite earning more, men have borrowed £769 more than women in the last year - and have less hang-ups about debt

- Those living in the East Midlands carry the least debt (£1,988) while those living in Yorkshire and Humber owe the most (£2,902)

- 37% of borrowers have turned to their family to help pay their bills, but consumers won't seek professional help until their debt hits £5,200.