The research shows that over the past six months, 1,389,000 repayments on personal loans have been missed, which is more than 200,000 a month and 7,700 every day.

The number of people struggling to keep up with their loan repayments has risen from 2% to 3% since 2006, and said Sean Gardner, Chief Executive of MoneyExpert.com says the two Bank of England base rate rises this year already could be to blame, and that things could just get worse with experts predicting another rise this summer.

“This is yet another warning of real financial distress and a sign that finances are being stretched to the limit by recent interest rate rises,” he said.

“The concern has to be that people are missing repayments on unsecured loans because they believe there’s not as much at stake as missing a mortgage repayment.

“Missing repayments is not a way to manage your finances. People doing that are risking damage to their credit rating and, potentially, court action. Burying your head in the sand is not the way to deal with financial problems.”

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