Understanding borrowers experience of sub-prime credit

What is it about?

High-cost credit has received significant attention in recent years. We investigated people's lived experience of credit, particularly high-cost credit (also known as sub-prime credit) to explore why they borrowed, their use of certain credit products and the impact of their borrowing on their finances and well-being.

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Why is it important?

Our research shows that low and moderate income borrowers are at risk of financial insecurity due to increasing variegation of credit markets and the need to use credit to bridge the gap between incomes and outgoings as a result of increasingly insecure incomes and employment. This has important implications for financial inclusion policies and we make a number of recommendations to improve policy and practice.