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New Credit Card Laws

The Financial Conduct Authority has called for government action to assist those with hard core debt as a result of credit cards.

It is estimated that 3 million people in the UK have long term credit card debt, which is defined as people that have paid more in interest and charges in the past 18 months that they have repaid in debt.

The Labour party have unveiled plans to limit the amount of interest that credit card companies can charge with the introduction of a ‘total cost cap’, which will work in a similar way to legislation covering pay day loans.
The legislation is designed to ensure consumers do not pay more in interest than their original borrowing.

A spokes person for the UK credit cards association said that they were ‘committed to helping the minority that do not use a credit card in a way that is in their best interest’.
The Conservative party has said that they were already acting to ensure that customers are helped to clear their debts and to outlaw any excessive credit card charges.

The Labour party made this announcement at their annual conference which, in part, duplicates the proposal put forward by the FSA back in April 2017 when they highlighted this as an issue.

The proposals include;

- Credit card companies working closer with those in debt and acting faster to put a plan in place.
- Credit cards cancelling interest and charges

Credit card companies do not have much of an incentive to assist those in debt at the moment; it is estimated that those in long term debt are paying around £2.50 for every £1 they borrow, which is profitable for the lender, as this proposal is to cap interest so that borrowers do not pay more in interest than the amount borrowed, it should help those in debt.

The concerns raised by the debt charity StepChange are that proposals do not go far enough and that the focus is on redressing the problem when someone is already in debt, rather than ensuring they do not get into debt in the first place.
Further details to follow.

New Credit Card Laws
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