1 March 2007
Recent figures from the British Bankers' Association (BBA) have revealed that consumers were not being won over by January credit card deals, with people borrowing £500 million less on their credit cards compared to the previous month.
This marks the eighth time in the past nine months that credit card spending in the UK has fallen, with Howard Archer, Chief UK Economist at the Global Insight consultancy, stating that the statistics reflected the more responsible attitude consumers were taking towards spending.
He commented: "This is clearly a consequence of consumers striving to curb their use of credit cards, or finding less expensive ways of financing their spending by switching more to secured borrowing."
Mr Archer added that the recent interest rate rises and the threat of a further one in the next month was also putting consumers off spending on credit unless they really needed to.
David Dooks, the BBA's Director of Statistics, said: "Prudent repayments, particularly on credit card accounts, are keeping the unsecured credit picture very subdued."
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