August 6, 2006

By Julie Ann Amos

Amidst the buzzing market action, the UK credit industry got slammed with its due share of controversies and warnings, accolades and brickbats and all else that comes along. Here we give you a sweeping view of how the month of July treated the wonder credit card industry of the UK.

To begin with, the holiday season being on anvil, Britons abroad are likely to waste a whopping ₤335 million, all due to the wrong choice of their credit card. Pitfalls like the loading fees, ATM charges, dynamic currency conversions and higher interest charged on cash withdrawals are the main suspected culprits, as observed by Robert Kenley, head of credit cards at moneysupermarket.

Falling in line, usage figures in general reflect an overall increase. The Morgan Stanley Card Index shows that between July and September 2006, Britons will spend at least 35 percent more than in the same period last year. While a major portion is likely to go into the spending on foreign holidays (₤ 331 in the next three months), a significant proportion of 24 percent is likely to be spent on groceries. This is in fact, quite a different trend observed for spending the cold cash.

Meanwhile, much to the relief of the market observers, the UK’s outstanding credit card debt slumped to ₤245 million last month. This is actually the third time in four months that a decrease in card owings was observed. Surprisingly enough, the gross mortgage lending reached an all-time high in contrast.

CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention service, had some welcome news for the credit card users this July.  The organization claims to have prevented fraud to the value of a massive ₤360 million in the recent months. According to the CIFAS chief executive, Peter Hurst, fraudsters are being denied at least an amount of ₤ 1400 in fraud, each day, each minute.

In the time being, dealing with the deviants with an iron rod, the government has announced that people who pay for child porn online are now likely to have their credit and debit cards cancelled under changes to the law.

Continue to Part 2

The Month That Was July 2006 Part 1
The Month That Was July 2006 Part 2
The Month That Was July 2006 Part 3