An alarming study from the U.K.-based Shelter housing charity has found that many Brits are making their monthly home payments on plastic, placing themselves at high risk of running into default. A fairly high number of the nation’s households – about six percent – had encountered financial problems in the last twelve months significant enough that the have had to turn to a credit card to meet their mortgage payment or rent. And while it’s true that those people living a low-income lifestyle were much more likely to encounter this predicament, the poorer people in society are by no means the only ones being affected. More and more middle class citizens are having to turn to this last-ditch resort.
The charity’s policy and campaigns director, Kay Boycott, stated emphatically in a public statement that paying the housing bill on a credit card simply “cannot be the answer.” Boycott also stressed the dangers of increased credit card debt, and opined that even the danger of losing one’s home should not be enough to make people charge this monthly bill. At this point, she indicated, debt management problems are severe enough that professional assistance should really be sought. House payments and rent are hundreds of dollars a month, a sum vast enough that it should NOT end up on credit each month!
Last year in the U.K., the number of lower-class households needing to use plastic to pay down their housing debt grew by eight percent. The number of middle class households in the same predicament grew by four percent – certainly not quite as high a number, but plenty of cause for concern.
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