Rates on UK Personal Loans Rise by 17%

The latest research carried out by Sainsbury's Finance, one of the high-street lenders in Great Britain,loans for personal purposes are becoming less affordable for the country's citizens.

As such, figures revealed in the new report published by the bank, suggest that a 17% increase in interest rates charged on private loans has been registered in the past 2 years. The average interest on personal loans stood at 10.67% in 2008, now it reaches 12.45%.

Commenting on the findings of the research, Mr. Steven Baillie of Sainsbury's Finance, said that a great fluctuation in the market of loans for personal purposes has been noticed. He added, however, that the bank he works for has always offered competitive interest rates and does not plan to change the strategy.

The report by Sainsbury's Finance shortly followed the report by Credit Action, which suggests that the overall personal debt in the UK stands at £1,428 billion. This means that the average amount of money a household owes in personal loans is £8,590.