OSLO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Almost 270,000 Norwegians, in a country of five million people, still have unpaid debts on their credit cards after the summer vacation they had last year, while additional 30,000 people do not know if the holiday has been paid down or not, newspaper Aftenposten reported Sunday.
The survey, conducted by analysis bureau Respons Analyse, showed that this number was higher than last year, when 129,000 Norwegians had not paid their holiday from the year before.
"This can quickly become a dangerous debt spiral. The summer holiday does not exactly surprise us. Therefore, it is very unfortunate to start the summer vacation before last year's vacation has been paid," said economist Magne Gundersen in bank Sparebank 1.
Around 180,000 of those who have unpaid vacation debts from last year plan to travel abroad also this summer.
"These days it is so important to show that you are as good as everyone else. This is reinforced by everyone who posts pictures on social media, which in turn is a direct reason why we feel like we must go on vacation because everyone else does," said Arve Pettersen, head of department at Trondheim Business School.
According to Pettersen, the availability of simple consumer loans and credit cards is far too high and, due to lack of stricter rules that regulate availability, people fail to control personal use of money.
