KEY POINTS:
Financial experts are telling people to reduce their personal debt as bankruptcies hit an eight year high.
Figures show 2380 people were declared bankrupt in the first eight months of this financial year, a 22 per cent rise on the same period last year, a Sunday newspaper reported today.
The main causes of people going bankrupt were unemployment, overusing credit, bad health, relationship breakdown and lack of health insurance.
Business commentator Rod Oram told the newspaper debt levels had rocketed, in part because banks and other lenders were pushing the boundaries of lending, including 100 per cent mortgages.
Consumers were also enjoying competitive credit card rates and finance firms had eased their lending criteria.
"It's time to start reducing debt now."
He added that debt did not have the stigma attached that it did in previous generations.
Dunedin has seen the biggest leap in the number of bankrupties between 2003 and 2006, up 62.5 per cent from 88 to 143.
Napier is second up 60.9 per cent from 87 to 140, followed by Nelson up 55.1 per cent from 49 to 76.
Bankruptcies were the highest in the 30 to 40 year age group.
- NZPA
