60% of credit card borrowers ‘pay balances in full’

Around sixty per cent of borrowers pay off their credit card debt in full each month, it has been stated.

Paul Rodford, head of policy at the UK Cards Association, said that this means they will be unaffected by changes in interest rates or APR.

He was responding to a report from consumer body Which? that found the majority of major credit card providers have upped their rates over the past year.

Commenting on this, Mr Rodford claimed that the current average interest charged by firms is “well beneath” that seen at the 22.9 per cent peak in 1995.

Credit card companies sometimes have to raise charges due to the “possibility of bad debt”, he explained, adding that this is increasingly relevant in the current uncertain climate.

“It’s a feature of our very competitive marketplace that card deals change all the time,” he remarked.

The Which? report argued that credit card providers are “out of touch with reality”.

By Jamie Price