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Credit card summary information improvements
13 February 2009
The credit card industry’s Credit Card Summary Box which is provided with all marketing materials, is to be revised. This is as a result of recommendations made in the Office of Fair Trading’s Credit Card Comparisons Report and the credit card industry’s own consumer research*.
The Summary Box was introduced by the credit card industry in 2003 to help consumers compare credit card products at a glance, by providing product information in a standardised format on all marketing material. The recommended changes, announced today, relate to the Summary Box on marketing materials, and these changes will be implemented across the industry by 30 June 2009.
The Summary Box was originally introduced as part of the industry’s drive to improve the transparency of its products for the benefit of consumers. The Box provides all the key product information, such as the APR, the allocation of payments and any fees and default charges, to enable customers to compare different credit card products more easily when they’re thinking of taking out a card as well as to help them better understand the factors that affect the different costs of a card.
The Summary Box format has proven popular with consumers, and has been updated regularly to maintain its relevance. Its use has also been extended with specific versions developed for both credit card statements and cheques in 2005 and for pre-paid cards in 2007.
Consumer market research undertaken by the credit card industry*, revealed that formatting information in tabular, bullet point or numbered list formats made it easier for consumers to compare the products. As a result these additions have been incorporated into the new industry guidelines for the revised Credit Card Summary Box. The new guidelines for credit card companies are available from www.apacs.org.uk.
Sandra Quinn, Director of Corporate Communications at APACS says: “Recent research** undertaken by the credit card industry uncovered that only an astonishing quarter of credit card holders admit to knowing the APR on their card. This means that a lot of people may be borrowing without knowing their charges, if they don’t pay off their bill in full.
“We’ve always encouraged cardholders to make sure that they shop around so that they have the card best suited to the way they use credit cards. By improving the Credit Card Summary Box, the credit card industry has made this crucial information clearer and more accessible, making it even easier to do this.”
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