Credit card providers must do more to fulfil their obligations under the Banking Code and perform more income and affordability tests for credit card applications, a personal finance website has revealed.
Price comparison service uSwitch.com has revealed that 89 per cent of credit card applicants were not quizzed on their proof of income, while only four per cent of people applying for UK credit cards had to submit proof of their outgoings.
The company claims it is not attempting to sensationalise the matter or blame consumer debt levels on credit card providers or regulatory bodies, but merely highlight "an issue that needs to be resolved".
Nick White, director of personal finance at uSwitch.com, remarked: "The solution for this is an urgent amendment to the Banking Code stipulating that income and affordability checks become compulsory on all unsecured lending products."
He added that it would be "no surprise" if figures released in the bank reporting season - due later this month - reveal a record amount of bad debt write-offs.
Earlier this week, UK payments association Apacs revealed that Britons spent "record amounts" with their credit cards over the last Christmas period.
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Credit card providers 'need to perform more checks'
Fri, 02 Feb 2007
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