Brits ‘bombarded’ with credit card cheques
November 20, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Credit-Cards
British residents were sent 313 million undesired credit card cheques last year, it has emerged.
According to recent research, 96 per cent of all credit card cheques issued are unsolicited, with only one in 50 of the 22.5 million consumers sent the cheques actually asking for them.
Furthermore, it was found that many people are unaware of the charges they incur upon using the card, with 2.1 million credit card holders thinking no charges apply to the cheques.
In fact, using a credit card cheque costs consumers a total of £298 million more than a normal credit card purchase in interest and other related charges.
Mike Naylor, personal finance expert at uSwitch.com, the company carrying out the research, said: “During 2006, at the height of the media frenzy surrounding credit card cheques, some providers may have scaled down their promotional activities, but nowadays it would seem that it’s ‘business as usual’.
“The reality is that the credit card industry has far more to lose than consumers if people had to ‘opt-in’ to receive credit card cheques.”
