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"Number of balance transfer deals halved in four years"

By admin | October 16th, 2009 | Balance Transfers

It has been claimed in a recent report that the number of balance transfer deals available in the UK has halved.

Balance transfer deals became very popular over the years, as they enabled those with high interest existing credit card debt to transfer the high interest balances onto a 0 percent credit card, which would then enable them to enjoy a generous period of interest free credit within which to repay all of the money transferred on to the card without the need to pay more interest.

In August of 2005 there were ninety credit card providers that were offering these credit card deals, according to the figures.

However, by August of this yea the number of providers offering these credit card deals had plummeted to just fifty two, almost halving in the space of just four years.

This has been partly blamed on the global credit crunch, which has seen the whole financial sector change, and has resulted in fewer choices for consumers that were hoping to save money on their credit card interest.

However, on a good note there has apparently been an increase in the length of time for which these deals are available, as the average time was 6.48 months in 2005, which has now risen in 9.7 months now. Lat year the average length of time for these deals came in at 10 months.

There are now around twenty four credit cards that offer interest free periods of at least twelve months, and a year ago there were thirty nine of these cards. However, in 2005 there were no cards that offered such long interest free periods.

One industry official said: “With bad debts causing a real headache for most credit card lenders, it’s no surprise to see that the number of interest free balance transfer deals has started to decline. It’s not just the total number of 0% balance transfer cards that have fallen away, but we’ve also seen the number of longer term offers chopped too. Whilst there are still 0% deals to be found, lenders have become ultra cautious and only the very best customers will now have a chance of being accepted for these cards.”

Tags: Balance Transfers, credit card balance transfers

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