Struggling credit card holders are to be identified to providers under a new industry-wide scheme
Credit card providers are to begin sharing detailed information about their customers in a bid to identify those who are struggling to repay their debts, it has been reported. According to the Guardian, the 17 credit card companies belonging to the UK payments association Apacs will exchange in-depth details about consumers' repayment habits.
Currently, information such as how much customers are borrowing and whether they are making their repayments on time is shared, but under the new proposals companies would have access to additional details.
These would include the actual amounts being repaid each month and whether customers are using their cards to withdraw cash. Both of these are seen by Apacs as signs that consumers are struggling.
The organisation claims four percent of the nation's credit card holders are facing financial problems, while 11 percent are paying just their minimum monthly repayments, risking further debt problems.
Apacs hopes the scheme - which forms part of a wider responsible lending initiative - will be in place by the end of this year, covering 97 percent of the UK credit card industry.
A study by researchers at the University of Warwick has revealed that the presence of a minimum repayment level on a credit card can act as a disincentive to pay off the balance in full, effectively extending the length of the debt.
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Comments (4)
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Anonymous Coward
13th Oct 2008 23:40
So, isn't there any legislation against that? I for one am very glad that I neither live in the U.K., nor the U.S., nor do I even have a credit card.
Phyllis Kunz
14th Oct 2008 18:42
I agree that there should be
a legislation against. that.
It smacks of doctors releasing
medical records, both
unethical and Un-American.
Phyllis Kunz
One of the Masses
14th Oct 2008 20:17
So, "they" want to delve into the deepest recesses of their client's lives that are still paying their obligating debt?
In short, they want continued oversight into others, but heaven forbid we sustain any oversight into their free spending, wasteful, criminal ways?
Are they kidding us with this?
Concerned
21st Nov 2008 08:58
Hmmm, I recently paid off a large slice of the credit card I owe, and was shocked to be asked 1. How did I get the money to pay it off and more disturbably, 2. Do you know that you have £XXXX amount more and would you like to pay them off??? Well......... 1. I lkegitamately sold my house, so thats how I got the money to pay a large slice of my credit card off and 2. I was shocked that the person of the credit card comapny started reading out that I owe more on other cards and proceeded to reel them off to me and would I like to pay them off!!! I am disgusted that information such as personal details of my credit card habits are shared amoung card issuers. I have never missed a payment, etc. Surely they should be a law against this, does this not breach the Data Protection Act, afterall the more people who know my details or any one elses' for that matter, the more chance it could be obtained for nefarious deeds??
