These days, more people are getting into credit card debt. Pensioners aged 65 to 69 and who unlocked equity from their homes had average credit card debts of £8,881. This figure increase to £9,048 for those aged 70 and over.

The company which conducted the survey of over 3500 customers has warned that many over-65’s are unlikely to ever be able to clear all their credit card bills.
The UK Government has announced plans to force card firms to clear debts at higher rates of interest first as well as banning rate rises and credit increases for people in financial difficulty and giving customers 60 days to reject rate rises.

It follows credit card companies increasing average interest rates to a 12 year high of almost 19 per cent.

New changes to credit card law are aimed at tackling the reducing the amount of consumer debt and irradiating irresponsible lending practices among lenders.

A spokesperson from a leading financial website described the new laws as “good news”, explaining: “These reforms should be a real step forward in introducing better rights for borrowers.”

Credit card fraud losses fell by £440 million last year for the first time since 2006. Losses from cheque fraud also fell sharply to just under £30 million, according to new figures released today by the UK Cards Association.

Fraudulent credit card activity fell by 28% between 2008 and 2009 to around £440 million according to reports released by the the UK Cards Association. Cheque fraud also fell to around £30 million for the year.

However, despite this good news, it was revealed that criminals were instead turning their attention to online banking. Fraud losses for online banking actually rose by 14 per cent to £59.7 million.