UK credit availability: unsecured household lending
UK credit availability: unsecured household lending stood at -11 Net percentage balance in Q3 2026, according to Bank of England — Credit Conditions Survey. It is one of the indicators in the Credit Conditions Survey table (Value · Quarterly), with a complete series running from Q2 2007 to Q3 2026. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Credit Conditions Survey table
| Indicator | Q3-2026 | Q2-2026 | Q1-2026 | Q4-2025 | Q3-2025 | Q2-2025 | Q1-2025 | Q4-2024 | Q3-2024 | Q2-2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit availability, past three months | |||||||||||
| Households, unsecured lending | -11 | 24.3 | -2.8 | 10.6 | 7.6 | 11.3 | 15.8 | 10.3 | 9.3 | 1.4 | |
| Corporate sector, overall | -0.1 | 0 | 3 | 3.5 | 7.7 | 7.9 | 8.7 | 8.6 | 3.3 | 3.5 |
Understanding UK credit availability: unsecured household lending
Financial institutions report the net percentage balance of lenders altering the availability of revolving credit cards, personal loans, and overdraft facilities to consumers throughout the United Kingdom during the past three months. This indicator focuses exclusively on borrowing without property collateral, separating consumer credit appetite from residential mortgage underwriting trends. The calculation aggregates responses from major high street banks and building societies to reflect prevailing retail lending stances.
Evaluating these figures necessitates a focus on quarter-on-quarter changes to capture rapid shifts in retail risk appetite without seasonal distortion. Because the dataset relies on qualitative survey responses rather than administrative transaction registers, figures are not subject to standard monetary revisions. Observers must distinguish between credit card limit adjustments captured here and actual consumer borrowing totals published in monetary aggregates.
Frequently asked questions
- What specific financial products are included in unsecured household lending?
- Unsecured credit encompasses credit cards, personal unsecured loans, and retail overdraft facilities provided to consumers.
- Why might unsecured availability diverge from secured mortgage availability?
- Unsecured lending relies on different risk models and loss-given-default assumptions, leading institutions to tighten or ease consumer credit independently of property markets.
- Are preliminary survey responses for unsecured lending revised in later publications?
- No, initial survey results remain fixed as qualitative sentiment measures rather than statistical estimates derived from incomplete transaction returns.