{"id":675977,"date":"2026-01-05T18:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/675977\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T18:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:37:27","slug":"uk-credit-card-borrowing-rises-at-fastest-annual-rate-in-almost-two-years-borrowing-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/675977\/","title":{"rendered":"UK credit card borrowing rises at fastest annual rate in almost two years | Borrowing & debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit card borrowing rose at the fastest annual rate for almost two years in November, according to the Bank of England<\/a>, as households took on debt to finance the rising cost of Christmas.<\/p>\n

In a snapshot covering the month of Rachel Reeves\u2019s highly anticipated autumn budget<\/a>, the central bank said individuals borrowed an additional \u00a32.1bn in consumer credit, up from a \u00a31.7bn increase in October.<\/p>\n

Net borrowing through credit cards was \u00a31bn, up from \u00a3700m a month earlier. Borrowing using other forms of consumer credit \u2013 including car dealership finance and personal loans \u2013 rose by \u00a3100m to \u00a31.1bn.<\/p>\n

Annual growth in credit card borrowing rose from 10.9% in October to 12.1% in November \u2013 the highest rate since January 2024.<\/p>\n

Experts said the figures could reflect people borrowing more in the critical pre-Christmas shopping period, as households come under mounting pressure from the rising cost of living.<\/p>\n

Simon Trevethick, of the StepChange debt charity, said: \u201cFor many households, the increase in consumer credit borrowing in November may reflect the reality that everyday costs are becoming harder to manage without turning to credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase could also indicate people borrowing more in preparation for the festive period \u2013 our own polling found that 14 million people would struggle to afford Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the UK\u2019s annual inflation rate has fallen back to 3.2%<\/a>, it is still above the official 2% target and prices remain significantly higher than in recent years. Consumers also paid more for festive treats<\/a> compared with last year, after a sharp rise in food prices.<\/p>\n

British consumers had shown reluctance to spend in late 2025 amid intense speculation over tax increases in the chancellor\u2019s budget. Official figures show retail sales volumes unexpectedly fell by 0.1% in November<\/a>. A study by the accountancy group KPMG also found concerns over the health of the economy<\/a> were holding consumers back.<\/p>\n

Economists said the growth in consumer credit could indicate an early rise in confidence among households to use borrowing to finance their spending. However, households increased their deposits with banks and building societies by an additional \u00a38.1bn in November, up from \u00a36.7bn in October.<\/p>\n

Reflecting a pre-budget slowdown in the UK property market, net mortgage approvals for house purchases fell by 500 to 64,500 in November.<\/p>\n

Alex Kerr, a UK economist at the consultancy Capital Economics, said the rise in bank deposits could reflect people reorganising their finances in anticipation of tax changes in Reeves\u2019s budget. However, the increase was much smaller than a \u00a320.2bn rise in deposits in October 2024, before the chancellor\u2019s first autumn budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat suggests nervousness about forthcoming tax rises didn\u2019t put consumers off borrowing in November,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cOverall, today\u2019s release adds to the evidence that speculation about tax rises ahead of November\u2019s budget didn\u2019t influence households\u2019 spending decisions too much. This also suggests there isn\u2019t much scope for a pickup in consumer spending in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit card borrowing rose at the fastest annual rate for almost two years in November, according to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-675977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115843946580875925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}