Two in five missing interest free period on credit cards

Two in five (39 per cent) of the people with interest-free credit card balance transfers do not pay off this balance before the zero per cent period e

14:31 05 January 2005

Two in five (39 per cent) of the people with interest-free credit card balance transfers do not pay off this balance before the zero per cent period ends.

Capital One found that 4.21 million people have taken out cards with interest free balance transfers, yet only 61 per cent of these have been able to pay off the outstanding balance in time.

Analysts are warning people who are using zero per cent cards as a form of debt relief that should they fail to pay off the card, they will be subject to interest rate payments on the outstanding amount.

Captial One's Ken Stannard said: "People can often find themselves unable to pay off transferred balances before introductory rates expire and can end up paying extremely high rates of interest."

The research found that the main reason for not paying off the balance was that consumers found that the introductory rate did not last long enough.

Capital One also found that 13 per cent of respondents failed to pay off the balance because they had forgotten when the interest free period had run out.