1m households use plastic to pay mortgage
19 October 2007
A million homeowners and tenants have used plastic to pay either a mortgage or rent instalment in the past 12 months, a new survey has shown.
Housing body Shelter said that six per cent of households had used a credit card to pay the mortgage or rent in the past year.
The study, which was conducted after the Northern Rock crisis, found that this figure rose to 7.5 per cent among adults aged between 18 and 24.
Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson said: "The number of people hit by the credit crunch, interest rate hikes and unaffordable housing costs are rapidly rising.
"For many people trying to keep a roof over their head desperation is driving them to short-term, high-cost borrowing."
He said it was shocking that some Britons have to find risky and expensive ways to avoid losing their home.
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, first-time buyers spend a fifth of their income on paying off the interest levied by their mortgage lender.
