Don't bury your head in a financial sandpit

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Don't bury your head in a financial sandpit

Mon 16th Jul 2007

People in financially precarious positions should not bury their heads in the sand but take action to get their debts under control and cut their spending.

Sean Gardner, chief executive of MoneyExpert.com, was commenting following the group's finding that some 4.1 million credit card repayments have been missed in the last six months.

With credit firms charging £12 a time for missed payments, the group believes that customers have forked out over £50 million in penalty fees in the past six months.

Mr Gardner said that the statistics showed how many people were struggling to cope from a succession of recent interest rate rises.

"The effect of missing one credit card payment can last as long as three years. That is how long the mistake will stay on your credit file and it will be used by firms to decide whether they're going to lend you cash and what they're going to charge," he said.

He added: "Anyone in trouble needs to take action now because the situation will only get worse if they bury their heads in the sand. They need to get their debts under control and cut their spending."

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