Some £1.8billion worth of credit card balance transfers was recorded in January, marking the highest value since February 2005
Balance transfer activity has soared to its highest level in nearly two decades, UK Finance reports.
In January, borrowers jumped at the chance to capitalise on offers from credit card providers, with £1.8billion in credit card balance transfers logged the most since February 2005. According to UK Finance, there’s been a significant 9.4% increase in outstanding balances on credit card accounts over the year leading up to January.
Just over half of these outstanding balances (50.5%) were accruing interest, a slight decrease from 51.3% in January 2023, as noted by the finance and banking industry body.
Janine Randolph, head of data management at UK Finance, said that customers were shopping around looking for the best offers. She said: “This shows us that consumers are taking advantage of lenders’ competitive balance transfer offers and paying down their outstanding balances.”
She added it did indicate that it did seem to indicate that customers were able to maintain their payments. She added: “As such, we haven’t seen signs of a fall in consumers’ ability to make their credit card repayments.”
