More than one million people fail to pay their credit card bills

February 20, 2007

In January 2007, more than one million people failed to pay off their credit card bill from their Christmas spending. Christmas is a busy period and people are thought to spend at least £300 on their cards for presents as well as for festive food and drink.

The reason that so many people failed to pay off their credit card balance is because it came down to a choice. People these days seem to have so many bills to pay including gas, water, electric, telephone, cable and television, and it often means that a choice has to be made. Which bills do you pay and which ones can you afford to miss out on? Well it seems that the credit card bill is the favourite one to miss out on. However, it may not be the easiest when you think of the extra charges incurred because of the failed payment.

Credit card companies make their profits by charging late fees as well as other admin charges. This means that for each day your payment is late, another extra charge gets added onto the overall total. So what started off as a £300 debt could easily turn into a £600 debt if left unpaid.

Whilst many do put off paying their cards, others do not even realise that they have not paid the minimum amount owed. This means that privileges are lost and charges are once again made. So if you are planning on paying off your balance, always ensure that you are paying at least the minimum amount owed and ideally more if you can afford it.

Another bill which comes in January includes the Council Tax bill and that is another bill which fails to get paid in preference to the credit card bill. However the results of that action could be quite serious and so you need to try and work out a strategy where you can pay both your Council Tax and your credit card bills equally. If you can’t you may need to seek financial help so that you do not get into any further debt.