19 June 2006
American Express has said that its decision to stop offering balance transfers for new customers was "not directly linked" to the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) demand for cuts to default charges.
The OFT had asked credit card providers to lower default charges on things such as late payment to £12 at the most, but the credit card company said that it was not trying to recoup lost revenue by withdrawing its balance transfer deal.
It said that the change "was already in the pipeline...before the OFT ruling".
"We are focusing our efforts on attracting customers who primarily want to take advantage of our reward schemes such as Nectar loyalty points and MoneyBack and benefit from these on an ongoing basis," a spokesperson for the credit card company said.
Financial comparison site Uswitch recently said that this announcement could mean "the beginning of the end for the rate tart phenomenon", as the initial interest free offer was withdrawn.
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