Credit card customers ‘will look to pay off balances’

Credit card customers will be looking to make higher repayments on their balances in the current financial climate, Equifax has claimed.

According to the financial services firm, a growing number of consumers are set to switch from credit to debit cards as their main source of payment, with many looking to pay off their credit card balances in a bid to become debt free.

“People will be more wary about running balances on these things [credit cards] in case their income suddenly disappears if they lose their job,” external affairs director for Equifax Neil Munroe explained.

Adding that credit cards will still have their uses as they provide protection on purchases, he also warned that there risk of fraud from internet and telephone banking may increase as the use of such services rises.

According to APACs, purchases on plastic cards totalled £93.7 billion during the third quarter of 2008, an 8.6 per cent increase on figures from the same period in 2007.

By Tom Musk