Compare Credit Cards with CardSmart

Consumers who don't keep up to date with credit card developments could be setting themselves up for serious financial difficulties, experts have suggested.

The advice comes after a survey by GfK for Credit.com revealed more than 66 per cent of respondents were clueless about changes credit card companies had made to their accounts recently, Associated Press reports.

According to Adam Levin, chairman of Credit.com Inc, part of the problem is that credit agreements are often written in technical language and confusing jargon.

However, Mr Levin insists this should not deter consumers from checking their monthly statements thoroughly and monitoring accounts online daily.

He says: "People need to be much more focused on these kinds of things, they're not just details.

"I think a great deal of the disaster that occurred with subprime mortgages and now with credit cards is that consumers didn't understand what they had agreed to."

According to payments association Apacs, people are increasingly shunning credit cards for debit alternatives. The organisation recently found that while spending on credit cards rose only slightly from £124 billion in 2007 to £126 billion, debit card spending rose 9% to £245 billion from £224 billion.

Written by ©

Credit Cards	0% Balance Transfers	0% Purchases	APR Representative (Variable)
	Tesco ClubCard Credit Card
	9 months	15 months	16.9%
** 16.9% APR representative (variable). Based on a credit limit of 1200 and purchase rate 16.9% p.a(variable). **
	Virgin Credit Card
	20 months	3 months	16.8%
** 16.8% APR representative (variable). Based on a credit limit of 1200 and purchase rate 16.8% p.a(variable). **
	Barclaycard Platinum with BT
	22 months	3 months	17.5%
** 17.5% APR representative (variable). Based on a credit limit of 1200 and purchase rate 17.5% p.a(variable). **
Compare More Credit Cards...