People’s ex-partners are spending £1.2bn on shopping sprees using joint credit cards
Dealing with a broken heart is bad enough – but it turns out vengeful ex-partners are leaving their former beloveds with an altogether more tangible pain, after new research found exes have racked up £1.2bn on joint credit cards.
According to the study, by comparison site uSwitch, 2m people in the UK have been left with an average of £457 in credit card debt by their exes, as well as £463 in mortgage debt, £313 in joint account fees and £327 in debts on shared online shopping accounts.
And half of those who opened a shared financial product – whether that's getting a credit card or a bank account – think doing so has had a "significant impact" on their own finances, with 30 per cent saying their credit score actually dropped.
While broken hearts can traditionally be mended with a heady mix of booze, comfort food and questionable ballads, finances are altogether more complicated. Almost 40 per cent it said it took more than six months to pay off the debts their ex had racked up, while for one in 10, it took more than five years.
But despite that, for many, ending the financial entanglement with their ex was too much to bear: 68 per cent said their shared bank account or credit card was still active five years after they separated, while a third of those who shared a pin code still hadn't got around to changing it.
Gives a whole new meaning to the line "breaking up is so very hard to do"…