69% of people will be able to pay for Christmas without having to take on any extra borrowing, according to the latest quarterly Lloyds Bank Lending Report.
It also found that consumers are continuing to feel confident that they will be able to keep up with monthly loan repayments.
Confidence levels in paying off credit remain high, with 84% of those surveyed feeling confident or very confident that they will meet their future repayments. The most common source used to make these payments is household income, with usage of this method increasing significantly from 82% in Q2 2015 to 85% in Q3.
Digital channels are the preferred route for taking out a personal loan. The proportion of people who apply for a loan online is significantly higher than those who do it in branch in Q3, with 52% using an online format to apply for a loan compared to 30% who apply in branch and 10% over the telephone.
The top reasons people have taken out a personal loan include consolidating debts so that they are all in one place (30%), and purchasing a car or motorbike (28%). Of those who used lending to fund a special occasion, nearly half (47%) took out a loan to fund someone else’s birthday and 15% took out a loan to fund their own birthday.
While those who fund an anniversary (16%) remains static, 19% of men are planning to use a loan to fund an anniversary, whereas only 12% of women are planning to do the same.
Sam Clark, head of loans at Lloyds Bank, said: “We are continuing to see encouraging signs as more people can better manage their borrowing repayments. With an increase in consumers using household income to pay off existing credit, allied to the significant percentage of people saying they will not need to borrow more in the next six months, this paints a positive picture for consumer finances as we look ahead to the Christmas period.”
