100 years debt at Barclaycard

Barclaycard, Britain's largest issuer of credit cards, is cutting the minimum repayment on its credit cards from next month. A number of its customers, which total nearly 12m, will see the level drop from 2.25% to 1.5%. Consumer groups argue that this could more than treble the time it takes to pay off a credit card debt at the minimum repayment level and add thousands of pounds in interest payments. For example, at the current minimum level, it would take 31 years to repay a £5,000 debt, with interest of £5,900. But at the new minimum of 1.5%, it would take 98 years and £22,300 in interest. The announcement comes as figures show that £2.7 billion of new debt was added to the UK economy in the first quarter of this year.


Source : The Sunday Times money page 6 - 28.06.09

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