Financial pressures increase credit use amid cost of living crisis

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More Australians are being pushed into financial hardship for the first time off the back of bruising interest rate hikes. Ahead of Tuesday’s RBA meeting – to be led by new Governor Michele Bullock – new documents show a growing number of Australians are turning to credit cards to pay their bills. The documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal more and more Australians are feeling the pinch in Australia’s cost of living crisis as inflation continues to put pressure on households. That’s been reflected in a sharp increase in calls to the National Debt Helpline. The Reserve Bank met with the debt helpline earlier this year, and an internal RBA email from July shows that the agency reported a “significant number of callers experiencing hardship who are accruing additional debt via credit cards”.