Credit consumers ‘often opt for ease over value’

Figures from Alliance & Leicester show that 50 per cent of Britons borrowing money do so through lenders whose interest rates are high but whose products are offered at a convenient moment, as in the case of many of the store cards now on the market.

And when it comes to taking on credit to buy a car a full 42 per cent of UK consumers will again do things the easy way and enter into an arrangement through so-called forecourt finance.

Richard Al-Dabbagh, Alliance & Leicester’s senior personal loans manager, said: “The research highlights how, despite good intentions, many people don’t give careful thought to how they borrow.”

“Anyone who is paying over the odds for large purchases on costly store cards or expensive dealer finance should look at how much they could save by moving to a low-rate personal loan.”

Over the course of 2006 more than 1.4 million British consumers approached Citizens Advice about debt, the organisation revealed earlier this year.