If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Bit of a stat-tastic post today all about lending in January 2010 and the whole of 2009, courtesy of recently released figures from the Bank of England. Check these beauties out:

- 48,198 mortgages were approved in January ‘10, – 17% lower than the 58,223 in December ‘09 but a whopping 43% higher than in January ‘09.

For a bit of context, researchers Global Insight believe 70,000 to 80,000 home loan approvals a month means ’stable house prices’ and experts attributed slow Jan ‘10 sales to poor weather (yes you read right) and the return of the Government stamp duty threshold to £125,000.

- **RECORD BREAKER** – UK banks wrote off a previously unheard of £4.12billion in bad credit card debt in 2009.

- £984million of mortgages were written off in 2009, double the £408million in 2008.

- In total the amount written off by banks (including cards, mortgages and other loans) rose from £6.9billion to £9.3billion.

- Total lending dropped from £13.53 billion in December to £10.24 billion in January.

- UK citizens borrowed £500million more than they repaid in January, a rare occurance with the populus having repaid more that we’d borrowed for five of the previous six months. An interesting comparison is that at £500million borrowed, the amount of credit being handed out in one month is still a long way from the £2billion a month during the peak of the recent boom time.

Related posts:

1. A Little Bank Charges Tip On Credit Card Reward Schemes Credit cards – they’re plastic fantastic until they become a...
2. Finally, Credit Card Charges Are Explained If you’re looking into credit cards or balance transfers then...
3. Unfair Credit Card Charges And Bank Fees Take Another Hit Isn’t it good to hear that all your campaigning and...
4. Lloyds Reports Pre-Tax Profit Of £1.6Bn For Year To Date After revealing last week that they are to stop selling...
5. Mis sold PPI Payout Costs In The Billions Yesterday we posted about the self regulation of the banks...