ABSTRACT
More and more people in Britain are using credit. In the mid 1960s bank credit cards were unknown. Today approximately 22 million have been issued by Access and Bardaycard. There are thought to be over six million retail store cards in circulation. In addition, credit is granted by finance companies, often in the form of hire purchase or instalment agreements; ninety per cent of mail order sales are credit sales; there are also personal bank loans, credit unions, trading checks, etc. In early 1987 total personal credit granted but still outstanding was in excess of £30,000m (Financial Statistics, 1987). In addition, approximately seven million households have credit for house purchase from the building societies, banks, local authorities, insurance companies, etc. In 1986 the outstanding credit for house purchase totalled £153,666 million (Financial Statistics, 1987).
