Credit card debt jumps more than 10%

Outstanding credit card balances from UK cardholders jumped by 10.1 per cent in the year to October, according to a trade association. UK Finance said £59.7bn was owed on credit cards in October. There were 354.6 million credit card transactions in the month, 11.3 per cent higher than in October 2021. UK Finance cautioned that annual comparisons are impacted by the tail end of lockdown restrictions. Helen Morrissey, senior pensions and retirement analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the figures could be a sign of early Christmas cheer as people started shopping “or, more depressingly, show just how much the price of our day-to-day items have risen”.