May 8, 2006

By Peter Kenny

A report from Capital One, has found that over the next six months UK credit card holders will be looking to transfer some £11.9 billion to take advantage of some of the 0 per cent deals available.

Capital One, the US finance group, found that on average UK credit card holders were looking to transfer on average £2061 to a new credit card. The report also found that a staggering 5.8 million UK credit card holders were set to transfer their existing balance to a new credit card.

On average a UK credit card holder will take nearly 10 months to pay off their existing credit card balance. Only 43 per cent of credit card holders manage to clear their balance within the first 6 months. It must also be remembered that 6 – 9 months is the normal time frame for a 0% balance transfer introductory offer. A hefty 27 per cent took between 10 and 12 months to repay while just over 4 per cent took between 13 and 18 months to pay back their balance.

Justin Basini from Capital One said, “Around 57 per cent of offer zero per cent interest on balance transfers, but people switching balances to these cards need to choose carefully because the length of interest free periods varies dramatically,"

"For example, nearly four out of ten of these cards have zero per cent interest balance transfers that last for six months or less, which may not be long enough for some people."

Out of the 5.8 million UK credit card holders looking to utilise a 0% balance transfer over the next six months, just over 2.4 million of them has £1000 or less to move. At the same time over 2 million had between £1000 and £2000 to transfer to a new card and just lagging behind are the 678,000 card holders who between £2000 and £5000 to transfer to a new credit card.

Click here for more details on the Capital One credit card range