3.2 million of us own 5 or more credit cards

                                                                                         

A staggering 3.2 million of us in the UK own 5 or more credit cards. I suppose this is hardly surprising given the last few years in the UK financial services industry, credit has been made far too easily available to people who either don’t fully understand the financial products they’ve applied for or simply couldn’t afford to make their repayments on mortgages, loans and credit cards.

Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with having 5 credit cards or even a couple of loans and a mortgage, it all boils down to how these debts are managed. If you can happily move balances from one credit card to another or pay off your credit card balances with a loan then as long as you can honestly afford to make substantial repayments, not just the minimum amounts, you have nothing to worry about.

For the people who have 5 or more forms of credit which they use to pay for monthly household bills or food shopping and cannot afford to repay these debts every month, you are in serious trouble. Struggling to keep up with repayments and still using credit to keep your monthly finances in order is a recipe for disaster and you should seriously consider seeking professional financial advice or debt advice.

The recent credit crunch and interest rate rises doesn’t seem to have put us off; with 28 per cent of people applying for more credit cards last year. Of the 28 per cent, 21 per cent applied for 1 credit card while 7 per cent applied for 2 or 3!

As I said credit cards aren’t all doom and gloom as long as you spend sensibly and do not use them to buy items you couldn’t afford previously. Because, in the long run, you can’t afford it!

About the author:
Simon Duffy writes for the Financial Blog a UK Finance Blog talking about all aspects of personal finance including loans blogs, credit cards blogs, tenant loans, credit cards blogs, mortgages blogs,

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