Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New research from The Current Account Switch Service has revealed that one in four (24%) UK adults have less than £250 in their current account. The data also shows a decline in those with higher balances in their current accounts, with a 15% decrease of those with over £2,500 since 2021. A vast majority of…
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Consumers are increasingly using credit to pay for insurance cover and switching to monthly payments for car and home insurance to manage their bills, new research from Premium Credit shows has found. Premium Credit’s Insurance Index, now in its sixth year, found that 76% of insurance customers use some form of credit to pay for…
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UK Finance data has shown that the total value of transactions on these cards was just over £1 trillion during 2024. The figures were in line with 2023 and split betwee debit card spend of £797 billion (down 0.8 per cent compared) to 2023 and credit card transactions worth £249 billion (up 5.3 per cent compared…
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New Barclays Consumer Spend data shows a record 94.6 per cent of all eligible in-store card transactions were made using contactless in 2024, surpassing the previous year’s record of 93.4 per cent. Shoppers used the technology more frequently, 236 times across the year, on average (vs. 231 in 2023) – and the cost of the…
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New research by Which? has found that car and home insurers are charging annual percentage rates (APRs) equivalent to credit card lenders for customers who pay for cover monthly payments. The research found that the average annual percentage rate (APR) for car insurers charging monthly is 22.84%, while home insurers average 21.59%. The consumer group…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is considering whether to remove or increase the contactless card limit to enhance economic growth and benefit households and businesses. The FCA says that damilies and businesses across the country could benefit from greater choice, flexibility and smoother purchases. Making regulation less prescriptive would also give firms greater control and…
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The Government has announced that the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) will be abolished and its remit absorbed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The move comes amid concern that the financial regulatory system is overly complex. The PSR, which looks after payment systems like Faster Payments and Mastercard, will mainly be consolidated into the Financial…
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The Government has voiced concern that local communities are at risk of losing access to banking services without specialised hubs. Speaking as she inaugurated the UK’s 100th banking hub in Lancashire, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves said “Without these banking hubs, towns are going to be banking deserts.” The Government plans to establish 350 hubs by…
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The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its final report of its market review into cross border interchange fees. The report finds that the high level of fees is harming businesses. The report found that throughout 2021 and 2022, Mastercard and Visa raised their cross-border interchange fees fivefold from 0.2% to 1.15% for debit cards…
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The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has published its latest BRC Payments Survey which shows a rise in the use of cash for the second year in a row to 19.9% of transactions in 2023 (from 18.8% in 2022). Debit cards remained far and away the most common method of payment, increasing to 62.0% of transactions…
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Latest data from Barclays shows that households cut back on essential spending at the fastest pace in five years in November. The analysis shows that card spending fell by 0.5% year-on-year, marking the first decline since July. Essential spending fell by 3.1%, with this the sharpest monthly fall since 2019, this was due to a…
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Data from Lloyds’ Bank’s 27 million customers has shown that consumers spent over £3.9 billion on debit cards over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, a remarkable rise of 20% compared to last year’s spending. Gabby Collins, Payments Director at Lloyds said “Wow! The level of spending was way ahead of what we expected to see,…
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New research from credit reference agency Equifax has revealed that the number of consumers using Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) could have peaked, but average spending continues to grow and will be key for many this Christmas. Four in ten (38%) consumers now indicate they have made use of BNPL, down from almost half (48%)…
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