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"High earners to be targeted by credit card firms"

By admin | December 20th, 2009 | Credit Cards

In days gone by credit card firms used to be focussed on offering credit to higher earners, leaving those on lower incomes out in the cold. However, over the past decade, up until a couple of years ago when the global credit crunch hit, credit was being offered to all sorts of people from low income earners to the wealthiest people.

However, since this time the finance markets have become far more difficult to break, and once again it seems to be the higher earners that are now the target of credit card firms.

One report has claimed that having a credit card could soon become a status symbol as it used to be before the credit boom, where only those with high income and lots of wealth would be able to brandish the plastic when at shops, restaurants etc. An analysis of the credit card market was carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the annual analysis, called Precious Plastic, indicated that annual fees will continue to increase in the future, and interest rates will rise.

Whilst annual fees were common on credit cards in the 1990s there was a change at the turn of the millennium, where the credit card market became more focussed on competition and gaining more custom, hence offering fee free cards, 0 percent interest, and various other incentives that would encourage consumers to apply for their cards. Pretty soon having a credit card was not a status symbol but a financial accessory for even those on lower incomes.

Sandra Quinn from APACS stated: “We reached a point when more people had a credit card than didn’t and when the number who had more than one outweighed the number who had none. That was when they stopped being a status symbol.”

Tags: debt, Personal finance, Credit Cards, Credit Cards

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