When rainy days arrive ‘Brits turn to borrowing’

When the proverbial rainy day arrives for British consumers many now rely on borrowing and not their savings, it has been claimed.

Close to half of the homeowners polled recently by Alliance & Leicester said they would struggle to cover their own costs if they were faced with a bill worth over £500 and 16 per cent admitted they would borrow money in this scenario.

With millions of homeowners already finding it tough to control their debt management problems, the financial services firm reports that two-thirds of the people it quizzed were feeling the squeeze from rising petrol and food prices.

Hetal Parmar, manager for savings at Alliance & Leicester, said: “We would encourage people to start saving sooner rather than later to avoid a basic household emergency becoming a financial headache.”

Last week, the Council of Mortgage Lenders urged struggling homeowners to contact their lenders for debt advice.

Written by Frank Charlton