Credit card companies to start targeting high earners again

Whilst there has been something of a credit boom in the UK over the past decade, prior to this boom it was not unusual for credit card firms to focus only on wealthy, higher earners, leaving those on lower incomes out in the cold when it came to getting credit. In fact, seeing someone open a purse or wallet with a string of credit cards suggested that the person was well off and earned good money.

However, over more recent years credit card firms have been handing out cards to people from all walks of life, meaning that credit cards are no longer the status symbol that they once were and for many have simply become part of everyday life.

Since the onset of the global credit crunch in 2007 the credit boom in the UK has come to an end, and like other financial sector the credit card industry has become far more restrictive when it comes to giving out credit to consumers. Many have tightened up their rules with regards to lending, and have put far more stringent regulations into place, which has once again pushed those with lower incomes and those with damaged credit out into the cold.

There are now suggestions that many credit card firms could once again start focussing more on high earning individuals, as they did before the credit boom, which could see the humble credit card become a status symbol once again. A study was carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers suggesting that over the next few years market conditions could result in credit card interest rates and annual fees increasing, leading to only higher earning consumers being able to afford to use the cards.

Sandra Quinn from APACS said that credit cards had stopped being a status symbol when the credit boom resulted in more people having a credit card than not. She said: “We reached a point when more people had a credit card than didn’t and when the number who had more than one outweighed the number who had none. That was when they stopped being a status symbol.”