As a practical response to worldwide credit tightening, 30% of UK credit buyers are planning to actively review the particulars of their financial commitments.

One of the UK’s leading insurers opines that, as an alternative to a number of commonly used products - like loans, credit cards and a wide and varying array of insurance products - consumers in Britain are looking for new, more competitive sources. The view of nearly 75% of Brits is that such a proactive approach to beat the credit markets would definitely save them a considerable sum of money; the remaining 25% actually predict annual savings of £400.00 or more.

In a survey, about 50% people stated that they had recently set up stricter personal budgets, a trend that indicates that Brits are becoming increasingly conscious of their money management skills. More than 1/10th of people attempt to cut back on their monthly expenditure on socializing. An additional 15% of people declared their plan of steering clear of any new credit in 2008.

According to a spokesperson of the insurer, rather than the actual affects of the credit squeeze, it is media speculation and interpretation of the squeeze that is having a lot more affect on the consumers. The scenario is that even individuals who are likely to remain completely unaffected by the current economic condition are staying well away from the credit market - almost two-thirds of the populace is likely to fall into this category. In case a recession takes place within Britain, media persuasion would easily be the culprit.

A representative of the consumer credit service has warned that a fairly high percentage of Brits are actively using more than one credit card. Equating this means that as many as 20% of the multi-card users are likely to run into financial difficulty, owing to a miscalculation of their expenses, particularly regarding repayments.

Another opinion of the spokesperson was that, compared to consumers in other European countries, Brits have four times more chances of default on their cards, or making a total mess of their finances because of their reliance on the cards. This is chiefly so because, compared to borrowers within the UK, borrowers in Europe exert so great a level of dependence on card credits. In fact, ownership of multiple cards more so their usage is an extreme rarity for the vast majority of European card-users.

As a means to consolidate their amassed debts, it has been studied that a large percentage of multi card-users are turning to personal loans and mortgage extensions. ‘Credit hopping’ is fast becoming a fairly common occurrence in the UK; which is a clear reflection of the fact that, when it comes to choosing and using certain financial products.

Ways to minimize the financial problems