Credit refusals affect 9 million

Market analyst Datamonitor claims that nine million people were refused credit last year due to debt problems such as county court judgements or for defaulting on previous repayments, a figure which will rise to 9.4 million by the end of the decade.

“Consumers have accumulated a significant amount of personal debt and they are now increasingly vulnerable to economic upsets,” said the report’s author Maya Imberg.

Her comments come as banks are being urged to behave more responsibly in who they lend money to and on what terms.

While the report claims that refusals had been declining in recent years, in 2005 that changed and is now increasing as unemployment and debt problems start to affect more people.