Cost of borrowing surges as overdraft rates hit record highs: Credit card fees back to the ’90s
Data covering quoted household interest rates on consumer credit products released by the Bank of England this week reveal the rising cost of borrowing for UK households,
With the Bank hiking interest rates by 0.25bp last Thursday and inflation expected to show a climb yet again for April, the fresh data demonstrates the difficult decisions many families face with their money particularly those less able to rely on cash buffers.
Overdraft interest rates have surged since the start of the pandemic rising 62 per cent from 20.99 per cent in February 2020 to 34.07 per cent in April this year, the highest level since the data series began in 1995, according to the analysis by digital lending marketplace Freedom Finance, which shared its findings with Morning Wire today.
The latest UK Finance data also reveals that overdraft balances have worryingly started to increase through 2021 indicating growing stress on household budgets.
Credit card rates
Credit card rates were broadly level with overdrafts until the pandemic hit.
However, while they are rising more slowly and have dipped slightly of late, they have still edged back to levels last seen in the late 1990s. Rates were 21.40 per cent in April 2022 and have been approaching 22 per cent – a barrier which has not been breached since December 1998.
The cost of borrowing on £10k personal loans bucks the trend and remains well below historic levels at 3.96 per cent although it has shown recent signs of growth in ticking up from a low of 3.37 per cent in September 2020.
“The rise in overdraft and credit card rates are a further wake-up call for households in the UK that it is not just mortgage borrowing that will become increasingly expensive in the near future,” said David Hendry, of Freedom Finance.
Hendry explained to Morning Wire today that “overdrafts have become a hugely expensive way of borrowing with rates surging above 30 per cent, despite being broadly in line with credit card rates until the pandemic hit.”
He added that “overdraft balances have been starting to increase again of late and this will be an important trend to monitor as the cost-of-living crisis unfolds, and we would urge households to see if they can transfer existing balances to cheaper forms of debt.”
There has been a recent spike in credit card borrowing too, according to the Bank of England, but rates are increasing here also and could soon reach their highest level in over 20 years.
“As a result, we are expecting to see an increase in demand for lower-cost personal loans as households look to manage their finances and consolidate these higher-cost forms of borrowing into products with lower rates,” Hendry concluded.