Brits unaware of high store card rates
18 December 2006
The high interest rates on store cards are scarcely noticed by UK residents, according to a report from Motley Fool.
It said that one third of us are "oblivious" to the rates associated with the cards and that 11 million such accounts are in existence despite frequent warnings about the costs that can be amassed.
Additionally, one in 16 people do not know how much their store cards cost and also fail to settled their accounts in full.
David Kuo, head of personal finance at Motley Fool, explained: "In general, store cards don't pose a problem if you pay off balances in full within the interest-free period."
Women are, it seems, twice as likely as men to incur interest charges and tend to be more susceptible to falling for the 'jargon' emitted by a sales representative looking to sell them a store card.
Also noted was that a "significant minority" of store card customers fail to gain anything from them due to the high amounts of interest they are paying back.
© Adfero Ltd
