11 March 2008
Credit card providers have been attacked by the Conservative party for apparently luring customers into borrowing money.
Shadow Business Secretary Alan Duncan said that the banks have added to debt problems as they offer 0% offers for a period of time, reports the Financial Times.
Consumers are in this way then forced to pay back interest that is beyond them, Mr Duncan noted, while firms will "spit them out" when they cannot return the cash.
"What [the lenders] have got to look at and appreciate is the individual human misery that will ensue on the back of this practice ... this is not acceptable practice. This is corporate irresponsibility," he told the paper.
He added that this is probably not an acceptable practice and that if the Tories got into power matters would change.
An official at Active Financial Services, Karl Pemberton, recently told the Evening Gazette that people could alleviate their debts via a management plan.