Credit card interest costs Brits £9bn a year
Credit card interest payments are costing Brits billions
Friday, 13, Mar 2009 08:00
Brits are needlessly paying out more than £9 billion in credit card interest every year by failing to transfer their balance to a lower rate, according to research.
A study from Abbey found more than two-thirds of Britons (69 per cent) have at least one credit card, with the average credit card debt standing at £3,256.
But despite the high levels of credit card debt in the UK, more than half (55 per cent) of card holders have not moved any of their existing debt to a 0% balance transfer deal and just 11 per cent of card holders have moved all of their existing debt to a 0% deal.
And only one in five Britons (19 per cent) with credit card debt are planning to transfer their outstanding balance over the next few months to take advantage of a 0% deal, Abbey said.
Callum Gibson, head of credit cards at Abbey, said: "By transferring an outstanding credit card balance to a 0% deal, Britons could save an average of £443 a year, a huge cost saving in today's difficult economic climate.
"At a time when people are having to manage their finances more carefully, transferring to a 0% deal is a sensible way of ensuring your money goes further."
The survey also found men have more credit card debt (£3,627) on average than women (£2,778), while Londoners have the highest level of card debt (£3,649) and those in the Midlands the least (£2,503).