Missed credit card payments cost £50 million

by Gill Montia

Story link: Missed credit card payments cost £50 million

MoneyExpert, the price comparison website, has published research showing that UK credit card holders have been charged around £50 million in the last six months, in addition to interest payments.

The fees have been charged as a result of missed credit card payments; approximately 4.1 million payments were either missed completely or paid late during the period.

On average just under 700,000 payments were missed each month, representing 9% of all payments.

The study shows that people aged between 25 and 34 are those most likely to miss paying their credit card bills.

Approximately 13% of credit card holders in that age range have missed payments during the past six months.

Since a ruling by the Office of Fair Trading preventing unreasonable bank charges, the penalty for a missed payment is £12, however consumers need to be aware that missing payments can lead to credit problems in the future.

The effect of missing one credit card payment can last as long as three years, which is the length of time it will remain on a defaulter’s credit file.

This file can be used by those in the finance sector to make decisions about whether or not to make a loan and the interest rate to be applied.

MoneyExpert sees the data as evidence of an increasing number of people struggling to cope with recent base rate rises.