242 million purchases were made on credit cards in November 2015, with a total value of £13.2 billion. About 60 million credit cards are in circulation; even with only around 67 percent of accounts still active at end of November 2015, this represents a large proportion of the population.
The popularity of credit card cards shows no signs of slowing in the US either. According to the latest survey from WalletHub.com, credit card debt has hit its highest rate since 2007:
“The fact that US consumers racked up a record-setting $34.4 billion in credit card debt during the second quarter of 2016 represents serious cause for concern”, WalletHub CEO Odysseas Papadimitriou said in the new WalletHub Credit Card Debt Study. “This [was] the largest second-quarter debt build-up since at least 1986, when quarterly statistics first were logged.”
The increasing popularity of credit cards in both the UK and the US has led to steeper competition on the industry. On Friday, Virgin Money announced a reduction of the balance transfer fees on both its 40 month and 32 month cards.
The balance transfer fee on the 40 month balance transfer card will now be 1.99 percent, with the transfer fee on the 32 month card reduced to 0.66 percent.
Chris Taylor, Director of Credit Card Products at Virgin Money, said: “Both our 40 month and 32 month balance transfer cards are popular options for customers, so we’re delighted to lower the balance transfer fees, ensuring they remain very competitive options in the market for those durations.”