A new survey has revealed that more than five million people are using credit cards to pay at least one household bill every month as people struggle to recover from the effects of the recession.

Moneysupermarket.com carried out the study which found that 14% of credit card users were using their cards to pay everyday bills such as gas, electricity and phone bills. A further 7% of those surveyed also said that they used their credit cards to withdraw money from cashpoints, resulting in them paying large withdrawal fees.

Half of the consumers asked said that they used their credit cards for large purchases such as televisions or DVD players, while 43% used them to pay for grocery shopping and 38% used them for buying fuel.

Kevin Mountford, of moneysupermarket.com, said: “It’s alarming to see so many people using their cards to pay for what should be everyday spending. Using a card in this way and not paying off the full balance each month is the first sign of financial difficulty.”

Following the recession and inflation debt charity Citizen’s Advice have seen a jump in enquiries relating to credit cards and store cards, having received 422,835 new enquiries over the course of the last financial year.

Citizen’s Advice representative, Catherine Torazzo, said: “Our advisers are speaking to people who are using their credit cards to make ends meet. We have seen more people coming to us with debt problems since the recession officially ended.”

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