17% of UK adults failed to pay one bill in last 12 months.

The sun is shining, kids have broken up for Easter, inflation is down to 4%, The Bank of England base rate remains at 0.5% for the 25th consecutive month and the Council of Mortgage Lenders confirm that lending for house purchases climbed by 8% in February. Perhaps I should end my column now, on a positive!

The worrying trend seems to be the public perception of what will happen when, not if, bank base rate rises. Moneysupermarket.com has established that an alarming 17% of people surveyed feel they will be unable to afford their mortgage payments when interest rates do rise, while 6% have already put their home on the market.

According to the UK Payments Council, at the end of 2010 there were an estimated 63m credit and charge cards in the UK compared with around 62m people in the country. Total credit card debt in February 2011 was £58.5bn and the average interest rate on credit card lending is currently 18.84%, which is 18.34% above bank base rate (0.5%)!

Creditaction suggest 1 in 10 UK adults are permanently overdrawn. One third of people have moved into the red during the last 12 months and 17% of UK adults (almost 8 million people nationwide) failed to pay at least one bill over the last year, potentially putting their credit profiles at risk.

We enjoyed the company of a work experience student from a local school last week. A well educated young man. Although he knew about credit and debit cards, he had little knowledge (as is the case with many of his generation) what would happen if he missed a payment later on in life to any credit agency or even a mobile phone provider. It was a real eye opener for him!

Finally, if you have not yet nominated a local business/individual in the WSCT Business Awards 2011, please make sure you do! All businesses, large or small, need a ‘pat on the back’ and recognition for their hard work and efforts. The closing date for nominations is Friday (15th April), so be quick and vote wisely! As an aside, did you know, I have been writing this column, every week, since November 2008...?!