If you were doing the logical thing and sunning yourself on holiday at the start of August 2006 you may have missed some pretty scary news about personal debt in the UK.

As if from nowhere, a flurry of announcements arrived in the space of a few days.

The Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in two years, making debts just that little bit harder to service in the coming months.

The DTI reported that IVAs (Individual Voluntary Arrangements) went up to 23,000 in the first quarter of 2006. That is a 73% increase over quarter one 2005. If you thought that sounded bad, the second quarter saw 26,000, a 66% rise.

HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland all reported rises in impairment charges or provision against bad debts in the first half of 2006. To pick just one, Lloyds TSB set aside

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