Two million people borrowed money to make a repayment on an existing debt in July, according to research by Debt Advisory Centre.

The survey found that young and early-middle-aged people were most likely to use one loan to repay another, with 7% of those aged 25 to 44 saying they had used a payday loan or other form of credit to make a loan repayment.

Londoners seem to be finding it more difficult to repay their debts than people from other areas of the UK, with 6% admitting they had used new loans to make repayments on old ones. But borrowers in the East Midlands and North East were almost as vulnerable, with 5% of those questioned saying they had borrowed more money to make a loan repayment.

And paying off debt isn’t the only reason people are borrowing. Other figures from Debt Advisory Centre indicate that 1.5 million UK residents (3%) used credit to pay their mortgage or rent in July, while 2.5 million (5%) did so to pay a utility bill – and a full 3 million (6%) borrowed to pay for food.

Ian Williams of Debt Advisory Centre said: “The steep increase in the number of payday lenders in the past couple of years has made it increasingly easy to borrow when you run out of money.

“But taking out more debt to pay off an existing loan can be a dangerous thing to do. You could end up paying even more in charges and interest, adding to your problems. And if you can’t afford to pay off one loan one month, there’s no reason to think repaying two loans the next month will be any easier.”