New Credit Card for 2.6 Million In the New Year

Posted 2007-12-29

A new research has revealed that nearly 2.6 million Britons have plans to switch credit cards in 2008.

But 6.6 million will continue to hold on to their current credit card and thus pay an average of 16.82 percent interest, mainly because they were doubtful on getting a new card, on hearing stories of the number of credit card applications being rejected. These statistics were revealed by  MoneyExpert.com

Seven percent of all credit card consumers were switching over cards in January. However many were told to make use of the interest-free period and use this as a good time to pay off debts.

Chief executive of MoneyExpert, Sean Gardner stated that as millions of people become realize the high expenses over the holiday season, credit card companies should expect that January will see a lot of transfers happening.

While it is good to see people taking action, it’s still worrying that millions will just add their holiday debts to their current debt. This piling of debt on debt simply spells financial trouble.

Stopping borrowing costs, is the initial step towards taking control of the debt situation. Thereafter it’s important to pay off the debt. Transferring a balance is a start of sorts.

People who are looking to switch over to a 0 percent credit card deal are advised to be aware of balance transfer fees. At 3 percent, this could men 60 pounds on a 2,000 pound debt.

Egg and Virign Money are offering the longest interest free period of 15 months. Though it should be noted that 72.5 percent of all credit cards do make an offer of a transfer deal.

Customers between the ages of 25 and 34 are more likely to switch credit cards in the month of January and nearly 15 percent of credit card customers in Scotland have plans to do the same as against 6 percent of customers in London and the sever percent on the south-east.

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