Of 2,022 adults asked in November last year by a YouGov poll, 6% said they had paid their rent or mortgage by credit card in the past 12 months.
Shelter calculated this figure to equate to a national figure of more than one million people.
The highest proportion – 8% – of those paying their rent or mortgage this way were in working class professions.
The poll also indicated 4% of the million paying to keep a roof over their heads with a credit card were from the middle/upper class category while one in 12 are Londoners.
The charity has warned that credit card companies must recover their debts and they are not subject to the same rules as mortgage lenders.
These people could find themselves facing homelessness because of their huge debts, especially as defaulting on credit card payments could trigger repossession in the worst case scenario.
Kay Boycott, director of policy and campaigns at Shelter, described it as a shocking discovery that over a million households in Britain were in such desperate circumstances that they need to borrow money on credit cards to pay for basic housing costs.
She said: “If people are already struggling to the extent that they fear losing their home, increasing credit card debt cannot be the answer. It is absolutely vital that every single person using credit cards in this way seeks advice urgently to get the help they need to ensure they do not lose their home. The sooner they seek help, the more options are available.’
