It's official. Our debt problems aren't just terrible, they are unimaginably awful. A debt charity has announced that for one in three of the people who contact them, there's no traditional solution available. There's no clear way out.

This is already bearing in mind that some of the solutions they are talking about are awful, and include everything from signing up to a strict budget for the next five or ten years, to losing your home in bankruptcy.

What they are saying today is that for one in three people, even if they did all of this, they still wouldn't be able to cope with their debts.

However, the charity, the brilliant CCCS, does point out that there may still be a way out.

Can there be a greater joy than your fixed rate mortgage coming to an end?

That mortgage you signed up to years ago when rates were 6% and it seemed like a great deal at the time?

There probably are things – the birth of your first child perhaps, conquering Kilimanjaro – but halving your mortgage in one go is pretty peachy.

While it's tempting to simply gloat and then head off to the shops, the end of the fixed rate brings a notable, but pleasing, dilemma – how to spend your new cash?

I was in a HSBC bank branch last week and frankly, it was an experience like none I've ever had before.

Rather than simply have a row of tellers sitting behind glass which you approach from the ranks of an orderly queue, the bank entrance is an open lobby with rows of cash machines and a staff of one helpful woman. If your needs are more complex than those dealt with by an ATM then she gives you a numbered ticket and you are sent off to what can only be described as a holding pen with the reassurance that your wait should only be "five to seven minutes".

Well, everyone knows that sort of guesswork is pure smoke but it sounds like they know what they are talking about. Anyway, back in the holding pen you wait until you are summoned by a bank employee, who in my case descended from above in a glass elevator. Very Willie Wonka.

He was perfectly helpful and we concluded our business but the whole thing was slightly bizarre. What's wrong with banks the way they were?

A recent debate on banking conducted by consumer organization Which? has revealed an almost total lack of trust in banks, with 96% of people agreeing the banks act more in their own interests than those of their customers.

One consumer summed up many people's views by saying: "Banks don't value customers. They view us as cash cows."

At the Big Banking Debate in London last week, many said the banks won't learn their lesson from the financial crisis, after benefiting from taxpayer-backed bailouts. People also slammed irresponsible lending, especially to those who are most vulnerable.

Many people in debt are only claiming a third of the welfare benefits they are entitled to, according to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service.

On average, a family on benefits missed out on £5,000 last year because they didn't claim everything they were entitled to. A whopping £16 billion of welfare benefits went unclaimed.

People are back to borrowing and spending again, Bank of England figures have revealed.

Consumers borrowed another £500 million on their credit cards and through loans in January, following £265 million in December.

This was the largest increase in consumer credit in well over a year and comes after five months of net repayments - when people paid back their credit card and other unsecured debts between July and November.

The surge in borrowing comes as a bit of a surprise. People probably borrowed more in December and January to buy Christmas presents and go on shopping sprees during the January sales – but retail sales were actually badly hit in January by the weather.

A new survey has revealed that there is strong demand to reform the banking system. The survey, commissioned by the Better Banking Campaign found that 70% of believed access to basic services is a right.

An unbelievable amount of people - between five and seven million - have no access to mainstream credit and nearly two million don't even have access to basic bank accounts.

So can the campaign really work, and what changes is it aiming to implement?

If you're in the market for a new credit card, or a new mortgage, it can be hard to know where to start looking. Knowing which kind or mortgage or credit card will suit you best is half the battle, and then knowing where to get is the other.

Find out how you can make at least one step in this process a whole lot easier.

Could you spot an outrageous rip off loan at 50 paces? What would you be looking out for - a loan shark? Perhaps even one of those pay day loans charging well over 3000% which are catching out unsuspecting consumers, and which are sanctioned by the authorities, which we warned about a couple of weeks ago.

OK how about a government-backed bank, which is offering loans every bit as expensive as these.
So what is happening. and what can we do about it?

The Bank of England was quite downbeat in its assessment of the economy today, saying the recovery would be slower than previously thought.

Governor Mervyn King said it's "far too soon" to say whether the quantitative easing programme is over. Last week the Bank halted the bond-buying programme, under which it pumped £200 billion into the economy since last May to kickstart growth - but left the door open for further purchases.

"The strength of the recovery is highly uncertain," the Bank said in its quarterly inflation report. "The nature of the headwinds means that the recovery is likely to be slow."

The tone suggests that interest rates are unlikely to go up any time soon from their record low of 0.5%. Some economists say they could even stay unchanged for the next couple of years.

King also warned of sharp price rises in coming weeks, but they will be temporary.