The global credit crunch that has been affecting the UK’s financial markets has been making financial headlines since last summer, having wreaked havoc in all areas of the financial sector, including credit cards. However, despite the worsening credit crunch, which has deeply impacted on the availability of finance for consumers, it appears that many consumers are still falling over themselves in order to try and get a 0% balance transfer card onto which to transfer debts of high interest credit cards.
A recent report suggested that many 0% balance transfers no longer offered capped rates on their transfer fees, but this does not appear to have put consumers off, with nearly three quarters of a million cardholders trying to transfer a collective £1.1 billion every month. These figures are despite the fact that many credit card providers have tightened up on their lending criteria, and according to some industry officials around half a million consumers have a credit card application rejected every month in the UK.
The data suggests that many consumers are still facing crippling repayments on high interest debts, such as balances on expensive credit cards, and whilst many are flocking to try and transfer their balances on to 0% credit cards, thus benefiting from the opportunity to save a small fortune in interest on their debt, many will find that the increasingly stringent criteria in place from lenders will ruin their chances of being able to make this saving.
One industry official stated: ‘There is a significant market for cards offering balance transfers as our research indicates that 40% of card holders think it will take longer than one month to clear their current balance.’