Tenants 'using credit cards' to pay rent

11 January 2010

Written by David Whittaker

Tenants of buy to let property have increasingly paid their rent via credit cards, it has been revealed.

Housing charity Shelter reported results of a YouGov survey, which looked at how homeowners and tenants paid their mortgage or rent.

Some one million people had used credit cards when paying rent or mortgage over the past 12 months.

It discovered that those who had working class jobs were most likely to use this method of payment.

But four per cent of upper class people also used credit cards for such outgoings.

Director of policy and campaigns at the organisation Kat Boycott said that this is not the answer for those struggling with payments.

Urgent advice should be given to anyone in this situation, which can lead to people losing their homes, she stated.

Money expert Martin Lewis said: "Using credit cards to pay rent … is a mistake that can store up mammoth financial problems for the future."

This follows reports from lovemoney.com last week (January 8th) that people were beginning to pay off debt and save money rather than spend it.

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