Are we heading for another credit-fuelled debt crisis? New figures show household debt at record high

The Bank of England is concerned that banks and building societies may have made it too easy to borrow money – and with good reason. Figures released by the Bank today show that household debt is at record levels, with credit card debt increasing at its fastest rate in more than a decade. It’s not difficult to see how this happened. Lenders deluge households with offers of new credit cards, and regularly raise the borrowing levels on existing plastic. There’s a plethora of deals on cards to entice people to switch their debt to new providers and the minimum monthly repayments are often so minuscule that many customers only ever pay off the interest. So it’s no surprise to learn that borrowing on credit cards increased by 9.3 per cent in the year to February, the highest rate of growth in 11 years and up from 8.6 per cent in January. In total, UK households put £600 million on their credit cards last month and now collectively owe £67.3