Credit card companies 'should provide more advice to consumers'
Published on : 14/12/2007
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Credit card companies should provide more advice to consumers on how much money they will have to pay back on their bills, according to a debt counselling service.
Thomas Charles & Co director James Falla said that practical examples should be clearly printed to help people avoid falling into the difficulty of not being able to afford repayments.
He added that companies should be encouraged to take responsibility on the issue, especially on cards with high interest rates.
"Particularly with cards that do have high interest rates, they should be illustrating what a person is going to be paying back if they only make a minimum payment," he explained.
"That would then show us that with some of these cards, if you just make the minimum payment, it's going to take you ten years plus to repay the amount, and you're going to be paying double what you've borrowed."
According to recent research by Credit Action, the total UK personal debt at the end of October stood at £1,391 billion, which was an increase of 9.7 per cent on the previous year's figure.
