Credit and debit cards have, in many ways, made the lives of people in the UK a lot easier, especially if you are not keen on carrying around a lot of cash. You would be hard-pushed to find many shops that didn’t take ‘plastic’ in one form or another, and cards are pretty essential if you want to buy anything online.

And it seems we’re a nation of card lovers. According to the latest research from APACS, the UK payments associations, spending on plastic cards in the UK in 2005 alone amounted to a staggering £292.1bn, and the average number of cards per person was 2.4 credit cards and 1.6 debit cards.

Of course, if you have more than one credit card you can end up paying separate bills at different rates of interest. Throw in the fact that you might have an overdraft and other sundry debts, such as mail-order catalogues, and you may feel swamped by all the payments you have to make. That’s why many people choose to take out what is often called a ‘consolidation loan’.  

By taking out a loan with Direct Line, you can pay off all those debts and have just one monthly repayment at a competitive rate, generally much lower than the APR on a credit card – our current rate is 8.1% APR Typical for loans from £7,500 to £14,999. Call us for rates applicable to other loan amounts between £2,000 and £25,000. There’s no arrangement fee and a Direct Line loan can make your finances much easier to handle. What’s more, we aim to give you an answer in 10 working hours if you apply online.