Pay costly store cards first, says CCCS

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) said that people should examine their financial ingoings and outgoings then pay off store cards, which typically carry high rates of interest.

“If people are worried about debt then we would advise them to pay off their store cards first, because they have the most prohibitive interest rates,” stated James Ketchell, spokesperson for the CCCS.

He also said that if a fifth of a household’s outgoings are accounted for by loan and credit card debt, then professional debt advice is probably needed.

Steve Gracey, spokesperson for Alliance & Leicester, has said that if a borrower has got a store card at 30 per cent and a credit card at 15 per cent “then obviously the store card should go first”.