28 March 2006
Millions of UK residents are putting themselves at unnecessary risk of being the victims of identity fraud by carrying around credit cards that they never use.
According to online credit report provider MyCallcredit, consumers should make sure that they only have cards that they regularly use, cutting down their chances of being the victims of fraud.
"Too many people, when they decide to stop using a credit card, either stick it in a drawer or cut it up but that's not enough," said Alison Nicholson, the company's director.
"Unless you tell the card company you want to cancel it, the card remains live. If a fraudster gets hold of the details they can rack up bills without your knowledge."
According to the UK payments association Apacs, there are more than 70 million credit cards in use in the UK by around 30 million adult cardholders. That means that each one has an average of 2.3 cards.
"If just one in ten of those cardholders has a card they don't use that's three million people who are needlessly increasing their chance of becoming a victim of ID fraud," added Ms Nicholson.
"Now is a good time for people to give their credit files a good spring clean."
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