Credit card holders advised to 'chop and change'

By Sarah Engle, Thu 19 Jun 2008 - Published in Credit Cards

A new report has shown that credit card rates have increased over the past 18 months.

Defaqto, a financial research company, compared deals from December 2006 with those available now and the results do not generally make good reading for credit card holders.

The report found that balance transfer fees have risen by 35.4 per cent and the length of zero per cent introductory purchase offers has dropped by 16.4 per cent.

It also revealed that the standard purchase rate per month has risen by 4.9 per cent while the standard cash advance rate per month has grown by 16 per cent.

However, there was some positive news for credit card users in regards to the length of zero per cent introductory balance transfer offers which have seen an average increase of 6.9 per cent.

David Black, principal consultant of banking at Defaqto said: "For the creditworthy, there is still a clear incentive to change your credit card every year or so."

Elsewhere, Scottish Widows has found that 20 per cent of British men identify with stingy Ian Beale from Eastenders when it comes to money matters.

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