Consolidation loans recommended to deal with store card debt

Shoppers may be adding unnecessary costs to their purchases by using high-interest store cards, Alliance & Leicester has warned.

A quarter of British consumers have store cards, which have an average interest rate of 26 per cent, the report said.

For many people, bargains from summer sales or new clothes for a holiday may end up as debt management problems.

To clear debt, Alliance & Leicester’s personal loans manager Mark Boyle has suggested looking into a debt consolidation loan.

“For those who wish to make their debt easier to manage, taking out a personal loan and consolidating it into one easy-to-manage chunk may be a wise option,” he said.

People worried about credit card debt or other debt management problems should “take stock” of them, according to Mr Boyle’s comments.

This week the Financial Times, citing research from Standard & Poor’s, reported an increase in the number of households “walking away” from credit card debt.