14 November 2005
Ill-advised choices of personal loans and credit cards are catapulting large numbers of young women into debt, according to a survey by finance expert ClearDebt.
The study showed that the number of women going bankrupt or entering an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) plan with creditors has risen by 122 per cent over the past three years, and will have hit 26,500 by the end of this year.
Debt figures make worrying reading for both sexes, but young women are seeing their tally mount with considerable, worrying, rapidity.
Women now account for about 40 per cent of those going bankrupt and, of the financially-stricken women interviewed by ClearDebt, a quarter were under 25.
Andrew Smith of ClearDebt commented: "Young women are under greater pressure than men to spend more of their money on looking good, fashions and going out. But the evidence is that many are simply living ahead of their income."
He also said that young people tend to presume that their projected finances will look healthy, saying: "This means people who have maxed out on credit cards and loans do not have the cash or flexibility to cope with even small blips in their finances.
"The plain fact is that you cannot cope if you have just used the last of your credit to pay for a holiday in Phuket."
Furthermore, a recent survey by MyEquifax suggested that ten per cent of women - compared with six per cent of men - use over half of their monthly wages to pay off credit card or personal loan debt.
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