Credit warning from money expert

Mr Glendinning feels 'gloomy' about the financial situation

Only consumers with spotless credit profiles will be able to get mortgages, loans and credit cards, the manager of a Welsh price comparison site has said.

Stuart Glendinning, managing director at moneysupermarket.com said banks were changing the way the do business because of the current credit crunch.

He said fallout from the American investment bank crash was to blame.

He told the BBC's Wales@work programme: "There's no doubt that banks have really tightened their criteria."

"It is much harder to get a mortgage, it's much harder to get a credit card and it's much harder to get an unsecured personal loan.

"People who've had dodgy pasts from a credit perspective have always struggled to get unsecured loans to some degree. We're talking about ordinary people with an average credit profile finding it much, much harder.

"The banks don't really want to lend. They only want the purest of the pure.

"You're talking about a relatively small proportion of the population that can benefit from these products at present."

Mr Glendinning said he hoped the issue about the credit crisis would get off the news agenda soon to restore some confidence in the market.

"I think there are a lot of people watching the news thinking, well so what its an investment bank. But I'm pretty gloomy about the whole thing," he told the programme.

"We so much depend on our banks having safe banking. We've been (asking) where do you put your money at present?

"You have to be very brave to put in into shares - though there is an argument which says now might be a good time.

"House prices are going down and now we are in a position where people are thinking well is my money safe in a bank and that is a really unsatisfactory and almost alarming situation."

You can hear more about this story using the Listen Again feature at Wales@work here.