(3 November 2005 – Taiwan) Young people in Taiwan are falling into the trap of taking out loans they cannot afford to repay, according to the country’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).The FSC said almost 400,000 Taiwanese failed to pay their unsecured bank loans for more than three months as at August 2005 – this out of a country with a 21 million population.
At the end of August, some 110,000 people had their credit cards taken off them by the banks because of bad credit history, the FSC said.
Many of the loans were taken out on credit card or the increasingly popular cash card.
The FSC said there had been an increase in the number of people who had their credit cards annulled because local banks had been issuing a growing number to younger people.
Taiwan Lifeline International said 30 percent of the country’s teenagers had asked the organisation to help them overcome the problem of credit card and cash card debt. The National Youth Commission has also provided counselling for debt ridden teenagers.