Household Emergencies 'Paid For By Card'

Many Britons would be forced to rely on credit cards and other forms of borrowing to pay for a household emergency.

This was the main finding of new research from credit card provider Alliance & Leicester, which looked into how much "rainy day savings" are currently held by householders. The study found that 16 per cent of people would use cards or loans to pay for repairs to a broken boiler or washing machine.

What's more, 45 per cent of people were shown to have no more than £500 set aside for such events, while five per cent said that they would borrow cash from a friend or relative in case of emergency. Almost one in ten also revealed that they would have "no idea" how to cope in the circumstances.

Hetal Parmar, manager for savings at Alliance & Leicester, commented: "The reality of being a homeowner means that at some point you will inevitably have to pay out for repairs such as broken boilers and faulty appliances. We would encourage people to start saving sooner rather than later to avoid a basic household emergency becoming a financial headache."

The Alliance & Leicester research also found that around 70 per cent of Britons hold savings of some kind; a figure which has increased slightly from the 64 per cent measured by the same firm three years ago.