Patricia Stoute had only been married for a year when her money worries got too much for her. She climbed to the top of the Carfax Tower in the centre of Oxford one sunny day last June and leapt to her death. She just couldn't cope any longer with the weight of worrying about the £25,000 she had built up on 14 credit cards, her inquest in January was told.

Lending data published yesterday by the Bank of England painted a confusing picture of the state of the economy ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee's decision later this week on whether to increase interest rates and expand its £200bn economic stimulus programme.

The number of mortgages approved for people buying a home jumped to its highest level for more than two years during December, figures showed today.

It looks like common sense will prevail in the attempt by some borrowers to have credit card debts written off. A judge ruled at the end of last month that credit agreements can't be deemed unenforceable. His ruling was the opposite of advice peddled by claims companies that have been telling borrowers for months that they could effectively get away without paying back the money they borrowed from credit card companies.

How dare they? Those damned bankers, not content with getting the legal seal of approval on sky-high current account charges, paying themselves bonuses for doing jobs they wouldn't even have if it weren't for the taxpayer, they now, horror of horrors, want to get rid of the good, old, reliable cheque.

More than half of people who use a credit or store card feel that meeting the minimum repayment is a burden, according to research published this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Alarmingly, 15 per cent of people fail to meet some of their repayments, the ONS said. On the other hand, the same survey reported that household wealth reached a record £9 trillion in Great Britain between 2006 and 2008, with the average wealth of households estimated at a healthy-looking £204,500.