Credit cards reward disloyal behaviour
November 14, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Credit-Cards
Credit card companies’ struggle for new customers is encouraging disloyalty, a new report has claimed. 
By reserving the best deals for new customers only, Defaqto argues in its report ‘Credit Cards in the UK’, credit card firms are making it sensible to keep switching.
While some cards now offer “anniversary” offers as a means of keeping customers, on the whole, these are not as good as introductory offers.
The average 0 per cent introductory deal available at present lasts 9.5 months for balance transfers, while for anniversary offers, the figure is between 5 and 6 months.
David Black, principal consultant of banking, explained: “There is a clear incentive for the creditworthy to review and change their credit card on a regular basis. The credit card industry is geared to routinely rewarding customer disloyalty for the creditworthy and there seems to be little evidence of this changing.”
At the other end of the scale, however, people with poor credit ratings are finding it ever harder to get approved for credit cards at all.
A recent report from Equifax found that high street lenders, mobile phone businesses and even catalogue companies are toughening up their credit checks.
