Is credit and store card debt weighing you down?

Yes? You are not alone.

Not surprising when the average home will cost around £30 to run a day. Cars cost £15.42 on average and raising a child to the age of 21 costs £23.50 a day!

According to a recent study by uswitch.com, one in four UK adults finds their debt unmanageable. In fact, our reliance on borrowing to cover the growing costs of living means the average person in the UK sees over half (53%) of their monthly take-home pay eaten up by repaying debt.

Sky high card repayments

Credit and store cards tend to be the worst offenders. The average APR for a credit card is 17.73%! And with the average adult owning four plastic cards with an average post Christmas balance of £2,168, that equals a lot being paid out on interest.

Missed payments

When you miss your credit card repayments, the cost to you is not just the £12 or more fine. A missed payment is a black mark on your credit file, making it harder for you to get extra credit and possibly increasing the APRs you're offered in the future.

Do something about it

Ask yourself, are you:

• Spending on store cards? Get rid of them. The APRs on these are 20% on average!
• Only making minimum card repayments? Try to pay off a little more each month. You'll reduce the amount of interest you pay overall and be debt-free faster.
• Struggling with minimum repayments? One solution is consolidation. This meansfinding a loan with a lower interest rate than your cards and using it to pay off your debts in total. The result? One lower monthly repayment which is easier to manage. You may pay back more overall, but if you only make minimum repayments on cards you may be surprised to find that a consolidation loan actually saves you £1000's in the long run too.

What ever you do, don't bury your head in the sand - get some free debt advice. Small changes really can lead to big improvements.