Credit Card Surfing is A Thing Of The Past
In the 1990s and early 2000s a new trend arrived in the credit card market, 'credit card surfing', whereby credit card holders were able to take up 0% balance transfer offers and affectively eliminate the interest they would normally paid on their credit card balances. These days are long gone if you listen to market observers and those connected with the deals. But why has it all changed?
Over the last few years there has been massive competition in the credit card industry as more and more companies joined the party. Finance was cheap, consumers were spending as it there was no tomorrow and margins for the credit cards companies were very lucrative. Then the credit crunch happened, the markets literally froze overnight and finance was impossible for many to obtain.
Companies cut back on the number of credit cards they approved, the 0% balance transfer offers were removed and credit card interest rates began to climb. The last few weeks have certainly seen some changes in the credit card market, changes which have put an end to 'surfing' for the foreseeable future. It seems as though many of the problems at the moment are a direct result of cheap finance and the over exuberance of finance companies and consumer. Will they ever learn? We have been here many times before.............
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