Banks "write off" debts of £3.5bn as borrowing Brits hide financial woes
Filed under: Financial Crisis, Families
Nearly seven in 10 Britons hide financial difficulties from their bank or building society – even if they experience a sudden money shock that dramatically changes their situation.
Meanwhile, 37% of adults take no action to adjust to their changed circumstances when they come under financial pressure. Perhaps that's why the latest figures from the Bank of England show that banks "wrote off" customer debts of about £40 million a day between April and June?

Millions of Britons tightened their belts during the recession, with spending on everything from holidays to groceries taking a hit.
One member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee has warned that there remains a serious risk of a return to recession.
Students heading to university next month will need to plan carefully if they don't want to graduate with a huge mountain of debt.
More than four in 10 Britons feel worse off now than they did this time last year, according to new research from price comparison website Gocompare.
The recession is over: we're putting in longer longer hours again after cutting back during the downturn, according to new research.
Those sneaky recessions... they get themselves all dolled up in their fancy government schemes, historically low interest rates and state engineered recovery plans, and they fool us into thinking they are actually a recovery.
Despite the worst recession in a generation, almost two thirds of the nation feel happier than five years ago and seven out of 10 are content with their current situation.
Men have emerged as the new underclass in the wake of the recession. They have been hit hard by job losses, a slower rate of pay increases and rising household spending.
The recession is having a long-term impact on UK family life as new research suggests more than one million families are arguing more due to ongoing financial worries.
The recession has prompted more than a million people to go it alone and become self-employed, according to new figures from mortgage lender Kensington.
The end of the recession was supposed to be much more fun than this. The downturn brought doom and gloom to so many of us that we looked forward to the end of the recession as the opportunity to breathe easily again. However, in reality things have never been so gloomy.
Despite the recession, the economy has grown at a rate of 2% a year under the current Labour government, according to new figures from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
It looks like the recession has wrought a revolution in our bedtime habits. Adults are now turning in at 10.30pm on weeknights, an hour earlier than two years ago. And almost 60% slip into their pyjamas as soon as they get home from work.
Chances are if you're a regular visitor to Walletpop, you're interested in money and personal finance, and may even be quite concerned about it.
