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Households use credit cards for mortgages

Published: 11/01/2010

More than one million households are paying for their mortgages and rent with credit cards, increasing their risk of accumulating debt.

A poll by YouGov, carried out for the housing charity Shelter, found that more than a million people in the UK have used a credit card to pay for a mortgage instalment or rent payment in the past 12 months.

Shelter found particularly high levels of this in London where one in 12 people have used a credit card to pay for housing.

Kay Boycott, director of policy and campaigns at Shelter said: "This is a shocking discovery, that over a million households in Britain are in such desperate circumstances that they need to borrow money on credit cards to pay for basic housing costs.

She added: "If people are already struggling to the extent that they fear losing their home, increasing credit card debt cannot be the answer."

Using credit cards in this way means that consumers risk accumulating further debt, and ultimately there is the possibility of their homes being repossessed.

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