What you can do

These tips will help you escape the debt trap

What can you do if you have too much money left over at the end of the month? That's not the only thing we wanted to know from Thomas Berghuber, Managing Director of the Upper Austrian Debt Counseling Service.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Markus Wenzel, stock.adobe.com)

Purchases are paid for without cash, which often means you lose track of your own finances; thanks to online shopping, money can be spent around the clock. Inflation also plays its part - all of which means that debts are accumulating quickly these days. Read here what you can do to escape the debt trap.

More than 21,600 initial contacts with debt advice services meant an influx not seen since 2011. The reason for over-indebtedness "living costs and housing costs" increased enormously in importance, and Kreditschutzverband 1870 expects 9,200 private insolvencies in Austria this year, which would mean a significant increase on the previous year.

Are many Austrians unable to manage the money available to them? Is it the increased cost of energy, rent and the like that is making it impossible for more and more people to keep their bank accounts in the black? Or is it the desire to belong that makes us go overboard? Whatever the cause: It is important to take countermeasures. We therefore asked Thomas Berghuber, Managing Director of Debt Counseling Upper Austria, how to get financial difficulties under control again.