Credit card borrowing up 4.7 over year

dotdash79

http://www.bba.org.uk/statistics/article/december-2013-credit-card-market/credit-card-market/

But looking at the graph the percentage of borrowing that's not generating interest is growing. Looks like it's smarter borrowing that's taking place.

Generali

dotdash79 wrote: »

http://www.bba.org.uk/statistics/article/december-2013-credit-card-market/credit-card-market/

But looking at the graph the percentage of borrowing that's not generating interest is growing. Looks like it's smarter borrowing that's taking place.

That would be my interpretation too.

Maybe some people have used lower interest rates as an opportunity to pay down borrowings so can pay off credit cards in full each month.

dotdash79

With BT cards offering 31 months at 0% for a 3% fee, it's madness if you pay any interest on your cards. Allowing people to pay down more.

Looking at the data set it's a bit more interesting that it's the amount spent is 4.7% higher but the amount outstanding is under 1% higher

michaels

dotdash79 wrote: »

With BT cards offering 31 months at 0% for a 3% fee, it's madness if you pay any interest on your cards. Allowing people to pay down more.

Looking at the data set it's a bit more interesting that it's the amount spent is 4.7% higher but the amount outstanding is under 1% higher

So credit card debt growing at the same rate as wages and slower than prices?

dotdash79

Yep, also the percentage of balance outstanding accruing interest has dropped 6% over the year.

Maybe people have been using cards for large purchases and then paying them off.

antrobus

Looking at the actual BBA data supplied; actual 'Credit Outstanding' in December 2013 was £58.355 billion compared to £57.367 billion in December 2012. That's an annual increase of 1.72%, which is barely keeping place with CPI.

The 4.7% growth appears to relate to seasonally adjusted purchases; i.e the volume of transactions people are putting through their credit card accounts. So it's only 'borrowing' to the extent that consumers are delaying actual payment until the next payment date for their credit card account.

Carl31

dotdash79 wrote: »

With BT cards offering 31 months at 0% for a 3% fee, it's madness if you pay any interest on your cards. Allowing people to pay down more.

Looking at the data set it's a bit more interesting that it's the amount spent is 4.7% higher but the amount outstanding is under 1% higher

quite right, 0% debt is any sensible persons dream

however, there are loads of people out there that are just a bit ignorant with these things, including many of my friends

I think many people just switch off with finance

dotdash79

It's the rest that allows us to have 0% debt.