One provider of short term loans in the UK recently reported that demand for payday advance lending over the 2011 Christmas period was three times higher than it was the previous year.
The provider of instant cash loans reported that it provided almost triple the amount of lending during the 2011 festive season than it had during 2010, which comes to no surprise to many personal debt experts. One such expert, James Falla, said that many factors have led to higher payday lending take up, but pointed to increased television adverts as one of the major causes.
However, Mr Falla stated that it was also clear that Brits simply did not have enough spare cash to spend over the festive season. Once these consumers ran short of cash, they took out a loan from a payday lender as more traditional forms of credit are not as readily available in the current economic climate as they were in years past, the debt expert added.
Lenders say that the typical borrower had almost one-third less debt this past December than they did in 2010, indicating that Brits have been paying down their debts over the past 12 months. According to research, December 2011’s personal debt average was £5,596, which was a significant decrease from December 2010’s figure of £8,559.
The research findings also discovered that, in comparison with December of 2010, the average customer’s pay had risen by 3 per cent in just 12 short months. These customers had improved their credit scores on average as well, indicating that they may carry less risk than they did a year ago as well.