Payday loan problems up 82pc
StepChange debt charity reviews 82pc rise in men and women searching for help with payday loans in 2013 
Photograph: Alamy
The quantity of people in search of assist with payday loans soared by 82pc last year, according to a debt charity.
StepChange said 66,557 individuals with payday loans sought the charity’s aid in 2013, up from 36,413 the earlier yr.
The common consumer held three payday loans, StepChange explained, with an typical debt of £1,647. Their revenue was typically £1,381 each and every month.
In complete the charity handled £110m worth of payday loan debt, up from £60m in 2012.
Mike O’Connor, chief executive of StepChange, mentioned: “The widespread harm and misery caused by payday loans carry on unabated.
“The industry has failed to handle the issues creating untold misery and harm to financially vulnerable buyers across the Uk.”
The Fiscal Carry out Authority (FCA) assumes duty for the payday loan sector in April.
The charity stated it continued to see numerous cases the place debts are inflated via curiosity and costs.
In 1 case, the charity helped a guy whose £200 debt ballooned to £1,851 in 3 months.
Virtually 14,000 people who sought the charity’s aid in 2013 had 5 or far more payday loans.
StepChange is calling for genuine-time credit score checks to address the dilemma of multiple payday borrowing and limiting the amount of rollovers so that loans can only be extended once. The FCA has proposed limiting the number of rollovers to two.
It said the FCA must think about imposing a debt-escalation cap to limit the amount of fees and curiosity that can be utilized to a loan that is in default.