One in three say personal debt has increased in the past year

A third of people in the UK say their personal debt - excluding mortgage debt - has increased in the past year, according to research by comparison site moneysupermarket.com.

The survey found that 14% of consumers make no more than the minimum repayment each month, with 10% of that group doing so because they can only afford the minimum repayments. An additional 4% said they choose to pay the minimum amount to free up disposable income.

Further research also revealed that the average amount of personal debt in the UK, excluding mortgages, currently stands at £8,430. This means that a borrower making only the minimum monthly repayments of 3%, with an average credit card rate of 18.43%, would take 24 years and 4 months to repay their debt.

The borrower would also end up paying out an extra £7,488 in interest - fully 89% more than the amount they`d actually borrowed.

18-34 year olds have seen their personal debt grow the most, with 37% noticing their debt had increased over the past 12 months. 7% of the same group surveyed also believed that debt `would always be a part of their lives`.

An expert from debt management company Gregory Pennington said: "We would stress how important it is that borrowers avoid making just the minimum repayments on credit card debts. Whenever possible, making larger monthly repayments could help you to get out of debt much faster - and stop interest `spiralling` on your debts."