Finance Credit Loan

Consumer champions Which? have carried out a new survey which found that just 1% of people in the UK are able to identify the main types of train tickets available to them. Additionally, 61% of respondents didn’t know that Advance tickets were non-refundable, and 48% didn’t know they had to be used on a specific train. When asked about Anytime return tickets, 75% were not aware that outbound journeys could be made within 5 days of purchase, and that return trips could be made within a month.

Consumers also displayed a poor understanding of off-peak tickets, with 51% not realising they are only valid outside peak times, and 17% unaware they don’t have to be used on a specific train. Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which? said “people could be wasting money buying more expensive tickets than they need to because it is so unclear what certain tickets allow them to do,” adding that “train operators have to recognise this is a problem and take urgent action to fix it. If they won’t, the government must step in to sort this out.”

There may be some hope for bewildered and cash-strapped consumers – transport secretary Phillip Hammond recently described the railways as a “rich man’s toy” and Liberal Democrat transport minister Norman Baker has said the railways should be “available for all.” Unless the government does legislate to simplify tickets and put the brakes on above-inflation price hikes, however, ordinary passengers will be left at a disadvantage, with a scarcity of alternatives for those who require affordable transport.

At the end of April 2011, personal debt in the UK amounted to £1,452 billion – the current sum total of personal debt is almost equal to the country’s entire GDP for 2010.

The average household debt stands at £55,854 (or £8,121 if mortgages are excluded) – a property is repossessed every 14 minutes in the UK and landlord possession orders are made 265 times a day. £179 million is paid in interest every 24 hours, and an individual is declared bankrupt or insolvent every 4.36 minutes.

The total amount of lending in April 2011 increased by £1.2 billion (there was a £700 million increase in secured lending and a £500 million increase in consumer credit lending). At the end of April, total secured lending had reached £1,241 billion and total consumer credit stood at £211 billion.

In the past year, £9.5 billion of loans were written off by UK banks and building societies, which is equivalent to £20.71 million every day, and the Citizens Advice Bureau deals with nearly 10,000 people struggling with debt problems daily.

Redundancy is fuelling increasing levels of debt, with 1,384 people made redundant every day and 850,000 unemployed for 12 months or more.