Consumers not switching their credit cards to improve finances

A recently released report has claimed that many people in the UK are getting a raw deal on their credit cards but are still not bothering to switch to a more suitable or better value credit card. The report said that many people were missing out on big savings on interest because they were failing to switch to a 0 percent card, and instead continuing to pay large amounts of interest on their high interest credit cards.

Officials have said that 0 percent credit cards, such as interest free purchase and interest free balance transfer cards, can help consumers to save large sums of money on interest, as they offer a long interest free period during which the cardholder can clear the balance without having to pay any interest on their borrowing.

Figures have indicated that around two thirds of Brits who used their credit cards over the festive season and had made a decision to switch to a 0 percent credit card once the festive season was over had failed to actually make the switch, and were therefore still paying large sums of money in interest.

One industry expert said: “There are some fantastic 0% deals out there at the moment, for example the Virgin credit card offering 0% on balance transfers for 16 months as well as 0% on purchases for six months and special Virgin discounts. However, while 0% deals give you breathing space from interest charges, you should always try to make more than the minimum repayments in order to make progress on paying off your debt. If you don’t think you will have cleared your debt by the end of the 0% deal, you might be better off looking at lifetime balance transfer cards.”