Britons ‘most indebted in Europe’

According to the Datamonitor report, Britons’ loans and credit card debt total £215 billion and the average debt of £3,008 is twice the average for western Europe.

This report comes out on the same day as a Visa report claims that Britons are the worst in western Europe for budgeting for shopping.

With poor financial skills and debt management, Paul Marsh, financial services analyst at Datamonitor and author of the report, said that firms are looking to the continent to offer loans as bad debt levels put lenders off operating in the UK.

“The UK is an increasingly difficult place to do business, due to the highly indebted nature of the population,” warned Mr Marsh.

The report labels the UK a “naïve market” when it comes to loans and debt and warns against habits of switching loans between credit cards.