Credit card debt ‘a necessity’

Britons are still using their credit cards to navigate their way through everyday life, it has been claimed.

According to research from moneysupermarket.com, more than 14 million people are turning to plastic for day-to-day needs, with 17 per cent using such cards at least once every 24 hours.

This comes after recent statistics from the Post Office indicated an eight per cent increase in January 2009 in the number of consumers using credit for transactions such as groceries and Peter Harrison with moneysupermarket.com noted that these incidents are “alarming”.

He stated that this is “a dangerous habit to get into” and those who are involved in such activities should “seriously consider stopping”.

Mr Harrison went on to explain that having more than one card can be a good idea if one is used for transfers and the other for purchases and both have zero per cent deals but the practice “does expose you to a large amount of credit” and this could mean it is harder to get additional credit later on.

By Sarah Adie