Consumer debt to surge over 75% by 2005 says report

A new report has found that consumers are borrowing larger amounts of money but concludes that apathy and rejection concerns prevents them from shopping around for the best rates on personal loans. The report, 'UK Personal Lending', by Datamonitor states that consumer credit outstanding at December 2000 was around £128bn, which means the average unsecured debt per adult in the UK is approximately £2,810. This compares five years ago to about £1,700 per person. One of the key drivers of this increase, says Datamonitor, are low interest rates, particularly over the past two years....