Consumers 'hit by store credit card offers'

Nearly a quarter of British consumers are using high-interest store credit cards to finance their Christmas shopping, it has been claimed.

Research published today by Alliance & Leicester (A&L) reveals that 23 per cent of people use credit cards, despite the fact that in some cases they have to pay interest at a rate of nearly 30 per cent for the privilege.

The A&L survey suggests that many customers are unaware of the high interest burden they assume. Over half of those using the cards do so only because they were offered them by an in-store sales assistant.

"Christmas costs can really add up, and some of the offers pushed at us by sales assistants in connection with their store cards can seem really tempting. The real costs of these 'discounts', however, may be with you for a long time as interest payments stack up," Richard Al-Dabbagh, senior personal loans manager at A&L, warned.

High interest-charging store credit cards are currently under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Despite today's findings from the A&L survey, data released today by the British Bankers' Association shows that consumer credit lending remains constrained.

Source inthenews.co.uk