5.92% Change in outstanding credit card balances in year to September 2024
£2,524 Average credit card debt per household in September 2024
2.3% Inflation rate in the year to October 2024
£4,308 Total unsecured debt per UK adult in September 2024
£65,777 Average total debt per UK household in September 2024
3.2% Increase in average first-time buyer house price in the year to September 2024
0.74 pence per litre Increase in the price of unleaded petrol in November 2024
12 years Time to save for a first-time buyer house deposit, saving at the average rate out of average UK income (at Q2 2024 rate)
UK Personal Debt
People in the UK owed £1,868.1 billion at the end of September 2024.
This is up by £3,367 million from £1,864.9 billion at the end of Sepptember 2023, an extra £562.36 per UK adult over the year.
The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,777.
Per adult this was £34,594, around 95.3% of average earnings. This is up from the revised £34,536 a month earlier.
Based on September 2024 numbers, the UK’s total interest payments on personal debt over a 12-month period would have been £81.1 billion, an average of £222 million per day.
The average annual interest per household would have been £2,855 and per person £1,501, 4.14% of average earnings.
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s November 2023 forecast, household debt of all types is forecast to rise from £2,259 billion in 2023 to £2,429 billion in 2025.
This would make the average total household debt £85,274 (assuming household numbers track ONS population projections.)
At the end of September 2024, outstanding consumer credit lending was £232.67 billion, increasing by £1.04 billion on the revised total for the previous month.
Within the total, outstanding credit card debt came to £71.68 billion, an increase of 5.92% in the year to September 2024. Credit card debt averaged £2,524 per household and £1,327 per adult.
A credit card on the average interest rate would take 27 years to repay, making only the legal minimum repayments each month.
The minimum repayment in the first month would be £72 but would reduce each month. If £72 were paid every month, the debt would be cleared in 4 years and 11 months.
Total net lending to individuals and housing associations by UK banks and building societies increased by £3.782 billion in September 2024 or £126 million a day over revised figures for August 2024.
Net mortgage lending increased by £2.739 billion in the month, while net consumer credit lending increased by £270 million.
In Q2 2024 lenders wrote off £608 million (of which £288 million was credit card debt, amounting to a daily write-off of £3.16 million.)
Everyday in the UK
The population of the UK grew by an estimated 1,584 people a day between mid-year 2021 and mid-year 2022.
On average, a UK household spends £5.20 a day on water, electricity and gas.
326.2 people a day were declared insolvent or bankrupt in England or Wales in the three months to October 2024. This was equivalent to one person every 4 minutes and 20 seconds.
In Northern Ireland in the three months to September 2024, there were 4.3 insolvencies per day. In Scotland in the three months to June 2024 there were 20.5 insolvencies per day.
Citizens Advice Bureaux in England and Wales dealt with 1,227 debt issues every day in the year to October 2024.
10.76 properties were repossessed every day in July to September 2024 in the UK, or one every 2 hours and 20 minutes.
The number of UK mortgages with arrears of over 2.5% of the remaining balance increased by 18.1 a day in the year to September 2024.
The number of people unemployed in the UK decreased by 215 per day in the twelve months to September 2024.
978 people a day reported they had become redundant in August to October 2024.
Net lending to individuals and housing associations in the UK increased by £126 million a day in September 2024.
Government debt increased by £518.6 million a day in the three months to September 2024.
Borrowers paid £222 million a day in interest in September 2024.
It costs an average of £25.28 per day for a couple to raise a child from birth to the age of 18.
For a lone parent family, the cost of raising a child comes to £33.54 per day.
66.7 mortgage possession claims and 34.8 mortgage possession orders were made every day in England and Wales in July to September 2024.
260 landlord possession claims and 196.3 landlord possession orders were made every day.