MSE News: Financial regulator to probe credit card market 3 April 2014 at 12:39PM in Credit Cards 25 replies 2.8K views

Former_MSE_Helen

"The FCA is to scrutinise whether competition in the UK's £150bn credit card market is working well for borrowers"

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Financial regulator to probe credit card market



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grumbler

FCA chief executive Martin Wheatley said given 30 million people hold at least one credit card, it is right that the regulator explores whether competition in this market is working effectively for consumers.

Sounds like they have no more important things to do and are inventing problems to spend money on 'exploring'.

Then he goes on about vulnerable customers being the key priority. What does this have to do with the competition?

zerog

I don't actually know anybody who uses credit cards to borrow money. If i needed to borrow money there are much better ways

All this talk of vulnerable borrowers just means that they are going to reduce the rewards available

I wonder what would happen if the market was split so that more issuers had charge cards

Vortigern

For example, while somebody who owes £6,248 to two credit cards owes twice what an individual with one credit card owes at £3,115, somebody with five or more credit cards owes almost nine times as much at £26,838.

Meaningless twaddle

Pincher

What are they going to find? Poor people can't afford to pay 18% interest, so they should charge 2%? That'll happen.

freddy33

At last-an official enquiry into the credit card market. I think I'm right in saying that this is an industry in which the average rate of interest has almost doubled in the past 10 years?! Whatever, I also believe that there will be egg on a few faces once the results of the probe are made public. Let's wait and see.

giblet10

My fear with this is it'll lead to the introduction of maximum credit limits that a provider can give which will mean big credit limit decreases for a lot of people.

Take me, reasonable income (£45k) but current unsecured limits total about £70k which I suspect the FCA will tell me is too much (because it knows what I need better than I do of course, like most authoritarian organisations).

I sometimes use a lot of that limit when booking conventions etc as part of my line of work. But the FCA, in its emerging style, will just bulldoze straight through individual needs and force the hand of credit providers.

dumpyboy

A good look at the way credit card providers deal with people with debt problems is long overdue, they tell you what you should do and then down the line you find you had the worst advice and the problem is worse

[Deleted User]

get it right,places like mse encourage card tarting,therefore cc providers compete to out do each other,meanwhile their loyal customers pay 17-18% apr when base rates are 0.5%
mse et al have alot to answer for imho

Herbalus

woodbine wrote: »

places like mse encourage card tarting, therefore cc providers compete to out do each other, meanwhile their loyal customers pay 17-18% apr when base rates are 0.5%
mse et al have alot to answer for imho

So, what you're saying is that MSE are pushing credit card companies into making debt more expensive for most people, just so a few can have 0% balance transfers? I think you've got the wrong end of the stick.

MSE telling consumers how to use a credit card properly and get out of debt is a good thing.

And I hate the concept of 'loyal customers'. A loyal customer is someone who continually does business with a company in the naive belief that the company will reward them for it, regardless of whether there is a better deal elsewhere. If you take 'loyal' out of that phrase, you get a customer who encourages competition, innovation, and better business.

BillJones

dumpyboy wrote: »

A good look at the way credit card providers deal with people with debt problems is long overdue, they tell you what you should do and then down the line you find you had the worst advice and the problem is worse

If you have drank a bit too much, and the room's starting to spin, may I ask, do you turn to the bar staff to ask what you should do next? Maybe ask them to recommend you a good cocktail for someone about to throw up on their shoes?