Credit Cards

Consumer finance rises 7% in September

The latest figures from the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show growth of 7% in consumer finance new business in September, compared with the same month last year. In Q3 2016, new business was also up by 7% compared with the same quarter in 2015. Credit card and personal loan new business together grew by 8%…

One in three customers disengaged with businesses as a result of online billing

The growing prevalence of online billing is putting businesses and service providers at risk of losing touch with customers according to new research, which reveals that almost one in three consumers have become distant from their bills as a result. The research of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 UK adults by Echo Managed Services, revealed…

Visa’s profits rise 28%

http://www.cityam.com/252161/visas-profits-jump-28-per-cent-consumer-spending-spree

Over 9 million people to pay for Christmas on a credit card

According to the Centre for Retail Research, over 9 million people will pay for Christmas on a credit card. 70% of people admit they haven’t started saving for Christmas, meaning millions of others will have to play catch up with their finances in the short run up to Christmas. The research also found that the average household…

Consumer Finance continues to grow

New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show growth of 16% in consumer finance new business in August, compared with the same month last year. Credit card and personal loan new business together grew by 17% compared with August 2015, while retail store and online credit new business increased by 6%…

Financial Conduct Authority: PacNet announcement

Following a decision by the United States Department of the Treasury(link is external) to designate the PacNet Group as a ‘significant transnational criminal organisation’, we understand that the ceasing of PacNet Group firms’ operations has led to some customer payments, including direct debits, not reaching creditors and firms. Firms affected by this should assess their payment…

ICO fines Ocean Finance after sending seven million spam texts

Intelligent Lending, trading as Ocean Finance has been fined £130,000 after sending more than seven million texts offering a new credit card powered by a major lender. Manchester-based Ocean Finance believed it was complying with the law because the third party firm it obtained names and phone numbers from claimed it had people’s consent to send…

September 2016: Money Statistics

Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for September 2016: Personal Debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1.496 trillion at the end of July 2016. This is up from £1.444 trillion at the end of July 2015 – an extra £1,028.50 per UK adult. Per adult in the UK that’s…

Contactless spending rise continues

The UK Cards Association has released figures showing that spending on contactless cards has grown in the first half of 2016,and has already outstripped contactless spending for the whole of 2015. £9.27 billion was spent using contactless methods between January and June of this year, this is more than the total 2015 contactless spend of…

Consumers should choose the repayment date and amount: FCA Report

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the the reports of it’s credit card market study. The main suggestions of the study were as follows: timely prompts before promotional periods end timely information to prompt consumers to take into account how much they are borrowing and avoid over limit charges, and giving consumers the ability to…

MasterCard to buy VocaLink

MasterCard Incorporated has announced that is going to acquire VocaLink Holdings Limited for about £700 million (approximately US$920 million).

British Bankers Association (BBA) members vote in favour of trade Association merger

The BBA will now join the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Payments UK and UK Cards Association in a new trade association representing the financial services industry after 94% of its voting membership found in favour of the proposal.

Capita acquires PayPoint’s Online Payments business