Debt: one pound in five goes on `live-now, pay-later approach`

According to a study by the Payments Council, almost one pound in five left after paying regular bills - which amounts to around £30 a week - is being spent on the `live-now, pay later approach to life that has left many with a debt hangover`, as the Daily Mail puts it.

This money is increasingly being spent using cards rather than cash - and adds up to around £75bn a year. This, according to the Daily Mail, `is two-and-a-half times more in cash terms than ten years ago`.

The biggest rise in spending has been on going out to restaurants, while spending on holidays has also shot up.

Meanwhile, the cost of servicing mortgage debt trebled to £79bn between 1999 and 2009 as house prices increased. And according to the report, `new regular costs` - internet fees, for example - have increased tenfold in ten years to £2.9bn.

The amount being spent on debit cards has increased fourfold to £264bn, and as the Daily Mail reports, `this switch to plastic from cash and cheques has coincided with a national spending binge and record levels of personal debt and bankruptcy.`

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