Poorer people pay high credit costs

Low income consumers are typically paying £174 a year on extra costs on credit from high street lenders by building up charges as they try to juggle their finances, a report has warned.

Some of these "vulnerable" people can end up paying more for credit from mainstream lenders than they would have done had they taken out a high-interest short-term loan, the document compiled by Policis and Liverpool John Moores University argued.