APACS responds to latest Moneysupermarket release

In their latest release dated 09 July, ‘Britain's credometer reaches boiling point’, Moneysupermarket claims that “the average credit limit of cardholders is £8,234”, which, added collectively, amounts to over £250 billion. This claim is based on an opinion poll of 2,000 people, as opposed to industry-wide robust figures that APACS makes freely available.

Moneysupermarket does refer to our figures when citing that there are 30.8 million cardholders in the UK – a figure that actually declined by 600,000 last year. However, they refrained from using our statistics when providing their figure on credit limits. Our statistics confirm that the average credit card limit is £5,129; although we are actually seeing people, on average, use only £1,384 of their available limit. These statistics expose the weaknesses of Moneysupermarket’s claim.

On closer inspection of the credit card lending statistics, the picture that actually emerges is that credit card credit outstanding has fallen by a net of £2.6 billion, or 4.6%, since it reached its peak of £58.2 billion in 2006. This is due to cardholders becoming more mindful of making repayments, a fact which is reflected in the high repayment levels, which currently stand at 97%.


ENDS

For further information contact the APACS Press Office on 020 7711 6316

Notes to editors:

APACS is the trade body that gives banks, building societies and card issuers a forum where they can work together on non-competitive issues. We help manage the way that businesses and individuals in the UK move their money around - this covers cash, credit and debit cards, cheques and automated payments such as Direct Debits, salary payments and the new Faster Payments Service launched on 27th May for online/phone banking transactions and standing orders. We lead the fight against banking fraud and twice a year we publish figures on payment industry fraud losses.