Credit Action,
Published: November 2006
Total credit card debt in October 2006 was £55.4bn. According to the BBA the proportion of credit card balances bearing interest was 75.3% in September 2006.
The average interest rate on credit card lending is currently 16.99%, around 12% above base rate. 3.4 million credit cardholders in the UK regularly make only the minimum repayment on their credit card. 11% of those with a credit card only ever make the minimum repayment – increasing to 18% for the 25-34 age group.
Credit card arrears rose consistently throughout 2005. The proportion of balances more than three months in arrears increased to 8.5%. Plastic cards in issue were 183m in 2005. This works out at 4 plastic cards for every adult in the UK .
There are more credit cards in the UK than people according to APACS. At the end of 2005 there were 74.6m credit and charge cards in the UK compared with around 60 million people.
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