People in the North of the country have more credit card debt than people in the south, according to new research by data analysts CDMS.
The study, which looked at the proportion of people carrying credit card debt over from month to month and people’s savings patterns found that people in the south are better at savings, and people in the north are more likely to live beyond their means..
The study found that Northern cities have the highest levels of ‘credit cruisers’ - people who only ever pay the interest their cards and not the balance– with Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow topping the table as accumulators of credit card debt.
The geographical spread of ‘super savers’ – people who save more than 2% of their income also showed people living in these cities as the most unlikely to save, with 11.9% of people in Glasgow putting away savings, compared to 27% of people in London and 23% of people in Cardiff.
Commenting on the findings, Ian Hubbard of CDMS “This analysis shows a stark contrast between usage of rolling credit card debt in the more northern parts of the UK, compared with the southern swathe.
“In Scotland, the Edinburgh consumer uses rolling credit substantially less than in Glasgow. Prudent savers reflect the inverse of this pattern, with the exception of Cardiff, which unusually combines high rolling credit usage with a prudent attitude towards saving.
“The business community wants sustainable spending growth, even if that means growth levels are slightly more modest. The polarity between different parts of the country means that businesses have to be very careful about where they direct their marketing efforts, in order to focus their investments on sustainable consumer markets.
“These indicators should be grasped by government economists and policy makers as a sign that further regeneration efforts are needed away from London’s sphere of influence.“
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