The number of people recorded as having defaulted on paying bills increased to 379,000 by the end of June, according to the credit information firm Suomen Asiakastieto.
The organisation said that at the end of June there were some 6,700 more people marked as having missed regular bill payments than the same time last year. Moreover the number of people with a poor history of settling bills has climbed by 51,000 since 2011.
More than half of the individuals in the company’s register have defaulted on payments this year and on average each person has 15 payment defaults registered against them.
“It’s important to understand that the root of the problem is multiple indebtedness. The same people have home mortgages, consumer credit, open credit cards, monthly-paid services and so on,” said business director Jouni Muhonen.
Many people struggling with over-indebtedness also take out new loans in a bid to try and solve their debt problems.
Altogether, nearly one million new payment defaults were registered nationwide this year. Each default remains on an individual’s credit record for two to four years, depending on whether or not the debt is repaid or if new defaults are registered while old ones have still not been cleared.
A sketchy payment record can considerably affect an individual’s ability to conduct certain transactions, such as acquire a rental, be granted credit or even purchase an insurance policy.