Troppi debiti? Un esperto di risparmi spiega come “fare pulizie di primavera nelle finanze”
“Nessuno realizza che una carta di credito è un vero e proprio debito”, è il monito di Kevin Mountford, cofondatore della piattaforma di risparmio Raisin UK.
ALTRE INFORMAZIONI : http://it.euronews.com/2025/04/21/troppi-debiti-un-esperto-di-risparmi-spiega-come-fare-pulizie-di-primavera-nelle-finanze
Abbonati, euronews è disponibile in 12 lingue.
“Nessuno realizza che una carta di credito è un vero e proprio debito”, è il monito di Kevin Mountford, cofondatore della piattaforma di risparmio Raisin UK.
ALTRE INFORMAZIONI : http://it.euronews.com/2025/04/21/troppi-debiti-un-esperto-di-risparmi-spiega-come-fare-pulizie-di-primavera-nelle-finanze
Abbonati, euronews è disponibile in 12 lingue.
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00:00Sprinkling your finances is just as important as sprinkling in the house.
00:03The issue is when it spirals out control.
00:06Nobody thinks that a credit card is actually debt.
00:14Welcome to The Big Question, the series from Euronews addressing some of the biggest topics in the world of business.
00:20Today I am joined by Kevin Mountford, co-founder of saving platform Raising UK, to discuss all things debt.
00:26Thank you so much for joining me today, Kevin.
00:27So I think a lot of people feel a lot of shame about discussing debt, but it's actually incredibly common.
00:32How many people in Europe are living in debt right now?
00:34If you look at Europe as a collective, there's around $7 trillion of debt or of borrowings.
00:41And I think that's a big difference because we're all used to borrowing money for different reasons.
00:46I think the issue is when it spirals out control.
00:49But if I break that down to an individual level, that's around $10,000 per person.
00:54If we look at the amount of borrowing to income, then that's where it can become a bit of a challenge.
01:00So across Europe it's about 97%, but you've got some countries like the Netherlands, Norway, 200% plus.
01:08Yes, the income is higher in some of these jurisdictions, but the borrowing, relatively speaking, is higher as well.
01:14So the issue is not borrowing in itself, but that borrowing going out of control and debt that we no longer can manage.
01:21Thinking about the most common reason that people are borrowing and getting into debt aside from mortgages, what is the kind of most common cause of debt?
01:36I think credit cards generally, you speak to your friends and nobody thinks that a credit card is actually debt.
01:43It's just the way we live our lives.
01:44We all look at our bank statements and realise with contactless, you know, how much we've spent that we haven't really thought about.
01:52And to boost the economy, as governments are now looking at increasing the thresholds on contactless.
01:58So in the UK it's generally £100, but if that starts to increase, I think we need to be far more disciplined in managing our household budget.
02:07I don't know about yourself, but through the years as my salary's gone up, I've not really been any better off.
02:12The more I earn, the more I spend. When that gets out of control, that's when you've got a real problem.
02:17And do you think there's a kind of financial literacy problem and a lack of education in schools that's kind of partly to blame?
02:22So we carried out some research at Raisin and it showed that there was a lack of understanding over things like what's inflation, what's standard variable rate on a mortgage, what's AER, APR, etc.
02:33The problem is if you've not got that awareness, you don't feel empowered and in control to make the best use of your finances.
02:41So that plays into the hands of the banks and other financial institutions and we become very apathetic and we don't change products as readily as we should.
02:52So that in itself, you know, creates a problem.
02:55Yeah. And do you think social media plays a role in contributing to debt in younger generations?
03:00Social media can be a cause for good in so much that you can find information, but there's promotional adverts in front of you day in and day out.
03:09And I think that the problem being it creates more immediacy on the back of your aspiration.
03:15And don't forget the ease of which you can buy things online now.
03:19I've got friends that struggle to sleep. So what do they do in the middle of the night?
03:22They go online and they start buying stuff.
03:24So that's where the likes of social media and the kind of immediacy of new technology can create problems.
03:32So we just have to be careful.
03:34What are the long term ramifications of getting into debt at a young age?
03:37Worst extreme is you can face bankruptcy, get assets seized, but also your credit scores.
03:42When you're older in particular, you might want a mortgage or you might want a car loan, etc.
03:46That's going to go against you. So the worse your credit score is, then you fall into kind of subprime categorisation.
03:53The interest levels you get, people are prepared to give you money, but you'll have to pay more for it.
03:58So it becomes a downward spiral, really.
04:00So for those already in debt, what are the key steps to take to get out of debt?
04:04Accept the fact that you're in debt.
04:06What you don't want to do is compound the problem by allowing the debt to get out of control.
04:11So talk to somebody. Don't bury your head in the sand.
04:13If you've got a loan provider, it's your mortgage, unsecured loan, wherever it might be, talk to them.
04:18There might be ways of rescheduling your finance to ease the burden a little bit.
04:24There are ways you consolidate loans.
04:26So what happens is you pay the loan back over a longer period, but your outgoings are reduced.
04:31So there's different ways of tackling this.
04:33There's certainly people out there that would try to take advantage of your situation.
04:38So if you need any debt-related advice, there are charities out there.
04:42There's a way of getting free advice as opposed to paying for it,
04:45because you don't want to be paying for something when you're struggling with finance to start with.
04:49For people who maybe do manage to pay off debt, what do they need to do going forward to stay out of debt?
04:54I think it really is about budgeting.
04:57Sprinkling your finances is just as important as sprinkling in the house or whatever.
05:01I've just changed car insurance.
05:03I've saved £130.
05:05I've just changed broadband provider.
05:07I've saved £500 a year, or whatever the case may be.
05:11It's money in my pocket as opposed to the bank or the insurance provider or whoever it may be.
05:16I think quite an interesting thing is maybe as a family or as a group of friends,
05:20why don't every quarter or six months sit down over a bottle of cheap wine because you don't want to overspend?
05:26But why don't you just have a look at your outgoings?
05:28Have a bit of a competition trying to reduce it.
05:31What are the next steps to create a kind of positive financial situation going forward?
05:34I think awareness, education, real understanding the terminology, getting to a point where you feel empowered.
05:42So, you know, raising as a savings platform.
05:45Taking the UK as an example, there are hundreds of millions of pounds sitting in accounts paying 1% or less.
05:51From our platform, you could get three, four times that.
05:55That's money in your pocket and not in the bank's pocket.
05:58So just do something about it.
06:00You've got deposit guarantee schemes across Europe that's protecting your savings up to certain limits.
06:06So there might be a brand that you don't recognise and you stick with a high street bank because you think your money's safer.
06:12Well, in some respects that might be the case, but with under the deposit guarantee scheme, whether it be 100,000 euros, whether it be 85,000 pounds, your money's protected.
06:22So go with the regulated entity that you might not know, but you'll get a better return on your savings.
06:27Looking across Europe in the future, what is the economic outlook and how is that going to affect us?
06:31I think it's a challenge and it's a challenge because if we look at it globally at macro level, we've still got conflicts around the globe.
06:38You've then got the ramifications of the Trump regime and that we possibly could have a trade war with tariffs and retaliation from countries that are affected.
06:48So from a central kind of banking perspective, one of the tools they've got is interest rates.
06:54So we saw that inflation was double digit.
06:56So they put up interest rates means there's less money available.
07:00So we spend less because of supply and demand.
07:02Inflation is coming under control, but there are potential issues because of this trade war situation.
07:07And I think the European Central Bank will, as we get into the summer, reduce rates.
07:12There is a view that it will get down to 1.75 percent.
07:14It was over 3 percent back in the last year.
07:16So if you bring inflation down, that kind of cost of living crisis reduces.
07:21Interest rates come down.
07:22Then anybody who's got borrowing linked to interest rates will end up having lower payments.
07:27So all of these are positive steps.
07:29So for a lot of people that are facing debt challenges, that'll be a consequence of high interest rates and high inflation.
07:35As they ease, some of those debt levels will naturally reduce.
07:39So let's hope that when we get into the summer, then that eases the debt burden on households across Europe and beyond.
07:46Well, thank you so much for your insights today.
07:48And thank you very much for joining me on The Question.
07:49Thanks for having me.
07:50We'll see you next time.
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