Even though David Cameron believes that Britons are paying off credit card debt to help the UK out of what he is referring to as “no normal recession,” there is a much more self-motivated reason for doing so. Those who choose to make minimum repayments could end up finally clear of debt more than two decades down the road.
During the Conservative Party conference, the Prime Minister is quoted as telling delegates that Britons are paying credit card debt down in order to help relieve the country’s debt crisis. In actuality, consumers are starting to rethink credit card debt and what it is personally costing them and their families. Of course paying down the debt may in some way help the UK, it is unclear just how.
What is clear is that a consumer with a mere balance on a credit card of £2,000 who only makes the minimum required payments each month would not have that debt cleared for 22 years. The additional interest would amount to £2,275 which is more than the original amount they had borrowed. Consumers have got to be looking at that and thinking what that extra £2,275 could have done for them over the years.
There is the theory that paying off debt earlier gives banks and other credit card companies more money to lend out, but the question with some analysts is in terms of whether or not putting other consumers into debt is a good thing.
The bottom line is that consumers are beginning to see what racking up all this debt has done on a personal level even though there may be some altruists who are actually trying to do something for the economy. When they stop to think that it would take almost three decades (28 years) to completely pay of credit card debt of £5,000 with an additional £5,912 in interest, the motivating factor for earlier prepayments is quite clear. Consumers are trying to salvage their own personal debt crisis which then has an effect on the economy, not the other way around.
