The UK's average credit card debt per household grew by *** British pounds between December 2021 and December 2022, the first increase since 2020. Standing at ***** British pounds at December 2022, the figure contrasts with the decline in 2020 – when the debt declined from ***** British pounds to ***** British pounds. That particular drop was likely a result of Covid-19's economic impact, and consumers trying to get rid of their credit card debt. The increase in 2022 may be caused by growing interest rates and the cost of living crisis beginning to take shape.

Daily, weekly and monthly data showing seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted UK spending using debit and credit cards. These are official statistics in development. Source: CHAPS, Bank of England.

The average amount of buy now, pay later debt from a UK consumer grew by several percent between 2021 and 2020 - although values did differ per BNPL platform. Klarna and Clearpay - two of the most downloaded BNPL apps in the United Kingdom - also had some of the lowest debts per capita compared to some of the other leading BNPL platforms. The source does not explain why these differences exist, although it does mention that most consumers took significantly longer than the average repayment time limit of ** days. This included both Klarna as well as Clearpay, as ***** percent and ** percent of respondents, respectively, felt they would not be able to pay back their money to the two platforms within ** days after a purchase. In general, however, repayments were outstripping new lending since the coronavirus pandemic, with regards to credit card debt in the UK.

In the first half of 2024, the total value of debt from loans to households in the United Kingdom amounted to approximately ************ British pounds. It was in 2004, when household debt surpassed the ************ British pounds mark. Debts can be formed in a number of ways. The most common forms of debt for households include credit cards, medical debt, student loans, overdrafts, mortgages, automobile financing and personal loans.

In June 2025, the personal savings rate in the United States amounted to 4.5 percent. That was a slightly lower figure than a year earlier. The personal savings rate is calculated as the ratio of personal savings to disposable personal income. Within the topic of personal savings in the U.S., there are different goals and reasons for saving. What are personal savings? Saving refers to strategies of accumulating capital for future use by either not spending a part of one’s income or cutting down on certain costs. Saved money may be preserved as cash, put on a deposit account, or invested in various financial instruments. Investing usually incorporates some level of risk which means that part of the invested money can be gone. An example of a relatively safe investment would be saving bonds, such as the debt securities issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Saving trends in the U.S. and abroad Looking at the personal saving rate in the United States throughout the past decades, it can be observed that savings had been decreasing until the mid-2000s, and they increased after the 2008 financial crisis. Still, the largest savings rates were reached in 2020 and 2021. The reason for that increase in the savings rate that year might be related to the measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The value of personal savings in the United Kingdom has also followed a similar trend. Although events like the COVID-19 pandemic may have affect many countries in a similar way, the ability to save, as well as the average savings as a share of personal income across countries can vary significantly depending on multiple factors affecting each territory.

The are several factors that can accumulate in the repossession of a home, the most common reason for being mortgage arrears. This occurs when borrowers can no longer make the mortgage repayments. Mortgage lenders will repossess the home to sell to recover the money owed. In 2023, between *** and *** homes in England were repossessed monthly. In Wales, this figure ranged between ** and **. Which regions saw the most repossessions? The North West recorded the highest number of repossessions in 2023. Conversely, the East of England, South West, East Midlands, and Wales had the lowest number of repossessions. London and South East, the regions with the highest average earnings, ranked in the middle. Mortgage arrears on the rise Mortgage arrears in the UK have increased quarter-on-quarter since the third quarter of 2022, showing that homebuyers are increasingly struggling to meet their monthly obligations. Borrowers who missed a mortgage payment were highly likely to also fall behind on other financial commitments, with credit card debt being the most common one.