The average UK household now has secured debts, excluding their mortgages, of nearly £10,000 – but that is still overshadowed by the amount of unsafe unsecured debt held by Britons.

According to debt charity Credit Action’s latest statistics, the average household debt in the UK is around £9,161, excluding first charge mortgage debt. Of course, because it is secured debt this is a relatively safe debt if handled correctly. Worryingly, this figure increases to £21,305 if the average is based on the number of households who actually have some form of unsecured loan, which is a lot more unsafe than secured debt.

On average, people have £12,144 of unsecured debt. It is figures like this which explain why the total UK personal debt at the end of September 2009 stood at £1,459bn – nearly one and a half trillion pounds.

Total secured lending on dwellings at the end of September 2009 stood at £1,229bn – meaning credit card, store card, car loan and personal loan debt makes up £230bn of the overall UK debt mountain. Even more worryingly, CreditAction has calculated that if you add to personal secured and unsecured debt to the 2009 budget figure for public sector net debt expected by 2014 then this figure rises to £116,180 per household.

Simply, the UK has too much debt to safely handle all the unsecured debt in the UK. We owe more as a nation and we can scant afford more credit cards and personal loans increasing the £1.5 trillion debt mountain that is strangling us all. If you think your debt mountain is too heavily weighted with bad unsecured debt it might be time to talk to a financial adviser.

SOURCE: CreditAction, 02/11/09

To keep up with the latest news and comments on current financial affairs please visit the Secured Loan Blog.

Related posts:

1. Secured And Unsecured Debt Still Growing
2. UK Debt Is Slowing
3. Borrowers Spend £3.6bn on Unsecured Cheques
4. The Benefits of a Debt Consolidation Secured Loan
5. Millions Rely On Credit