Using credit cards for mortgages is “terrifying”

The growing trend for people in the UK to make mortgage repayments on credit cards has been described as “frankly terrifying” by the co-owner of an advisory service.

Chris Jenkins of the Homeowners Advice Centre made this observation following recently published research from Shelter, which found that over one million householders have taken such action in the last year.

He stated that, although this could be viewed as a solution to debt issues, this will only exacerbate situations.

“Payments build up and credit inevitably runs out, leaving the individual in a much worse position,” Mr Jenkins said, noting that people are not considering the “root cause of the problem”.

Furthermore, he recommended that if outgoings are consistently higher than incomings, people should be seeking help from relevant bodies to address the difficulties.

The Shelter study also revealed that, in the last 12 months, one out of 12 Londoners have used their credit cards to pay their rent or mortgages.

By Sarah Adie