Credit 'is too easily available'

Monday, November 9th 2009

Britons' access to credit is too easy to take advantage of, according to one expert.

Nick O'Reilly, insolvency practitioner and director at business recovery firm Vantis, said that current bankruptcy figures are "frightening" and claimed that a change in consumers' attitudes towards credit is "long overdue".

"The problem with credit, to an extent, is that it's too easily available," he went on to state.

Mr O'Reilly added that it is concerning that retail assistants with little expertise are allowed to sell store cards and other forms of credit to consumers.

Recent figures from the Insolvency Service showed that there were 35,242 individual insolvencies in England and Wales in the three months to September 2009, up 28.2 per cent on the same quarter last year.

Of these, 18,347 were bankruptcies - 6.4 per cent more than last year - while 12,390 were individual voluntary arrangements and 4,505 were debt relief orders, the statistics showed.