Barclaycard has announced that spending on credit and debit cards was up over the 2009 festive period.

Barclay Payment Acceptance, which is one of the largest processors of credit and debit card transactions, said that UK shoppers spent more using their plastic than they did last time. The figures compare 19th December to 31st December, 2009, to the same period in 2008.

And the busiest day turns out to be the 23rd December, when a whopping £497 million was spent using credit and debit cards. Further examination of the data might show of course that this was men doing their last minute shopping.

The next busiest day was 29th December when no doubt attention turned to sale bargains. On this day some £376 million was passed through the tills using plastic.

The total turnover for the period under review was a quite staggering £4 billion, not bad considering the country is still officially in recession. It was a 2.4% increase over 2008 which saw just shy of four billion being spent.

Breaking the data even further, reveals that spending after Christmas was also up from 2008, with £1.68 billion compared to £1.64 billion.

On Christmas Day itself (thought that was a holiday), there were 700,000 transactions totalling £24 million. These appeared to peak at 12.08pm (maybe in readiness for lunch and the Queen’s Speech), with 32 transactions a second. The online retailers accounted for £9.5 million’s worth of trades on the day itself, compared to £8.1 million in 2008 (up 17%).

On boxing day, many of the transactions, which averaged around £73, were driven by the DIY sector.

Head of Sales at Barclaycard Global Payment Acceptance, Marc Pettican, said:
“Our retailers have seen an increase in turnover compared to the same period last year with over £4 billion being spent. We’ve also seen a stronger post-Christmas performance as shoppers take advantage of the sales discounts and consider the effects of the imminent VAT increase.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Two companies have waded in with similar credit card application success checkers.

Both Barclaycard and confused.com have introduce services which not only speed up the process of applying for a new credit card, but also quickly assess the likelihood of a successful application.

Barclay claim that they have created a unique online eligibility test which is designed to help potential customers find out if their credit card application is likely to be successful, or fail at the first hurdle.

This does away with the need to complete application forms, if the application is likely to be met with the waste bin. It will only leave a search ‘footprint’ on a person’s credit record, as it isn’t a formal application for credit, and will not affect their ability to get credit in the future.

And it’s the minimal use of force on a person’s credit record, that Barclaycard is heavily promoting.

Amer Sajed, chief executive of Barclaycard UK, chirruped:
“Consumers currently need to apply in full for a credit card UK, without knowing whether they are likely to be accepted or not, leaving a search on their credit file which can potentially have a negative impact on their credit rating. This unique pre-application check solves this problem. The check can be completed in a few minutes and gives consumers a good indication of whether their application will be accepted.”

The service is available via the Barclaycard website. The company claim that since its launch, 4000 potential customers have used the pre-application check to determine whether they would be accepted for a Barclaycard, giving them a better idea of whether or not they would be successful in an application for a credit card.

In a similar effort to win the hearts and minds of those desperate for some plastic money, confused.com has launched a new credit profiling tool. It basically enables customers to see how likely they are to be accepted for the credit cards offered on its site. Confused.com state they are the first price comparison site to offer such a service which, as well as being free to use, leaves no credit check footprint.

Joanne Garcia, Head of Credit Cards at Confused.com, said:
“Now is the time to take control over your debts. It’s sensible to start by paying off the most expensive debt first, so don’t waste this opportunity to get rid of those costly credit cards. Switching to a cheaper credit card and/or paying back just a small extra amount each month can be really effective, especially if you are currently paying off just the minimum each month.

“But as the rules around lending get more stringent, trying to switch credit cards can be a time-consuming and frustrating exercise. The tool on our site will give customers the confidence that they are applying for the right product which should save them both time and incurring unnecessary credit footprints.

“If you can’t switch to a cheaper credit card, you can still make staggering overall savings by making more than the minimum repayment every month.

“For example, if you have a credit card debt of £5,000 on a standard rate of 14.9% and pay back the minimum of 2% each month, it could take 36 years to pay it back and you’d pay nearly £7,000 in additional interest. By paying just an extra £10 a month, the debt would be repaid in just over 16 years, and the additional interest paid would be a far less eye watering £4,200. If you could stretch to paying off an extra £50 per month, it would take just six years to repay the original debt, plus just under £2,000 in interest.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Getting one letter from your bank is bad enough, but 317 in one go, must be some kind of record.

But for a recently widowed mother of two who received the 317 letters from Barclaycard, what made matters worse, was the only correctly addressed letter was for her dead husband.

The 55-year-old widow who had only lost he husband a few weeks earlier, was dumbfounded when the letters dropped through her letterbox. And 316 of them were addressed to her, but contained other people’s statements, providing most of their personal information and how much they owed on their cards.

She had already told them of her husband’s death, having also provided a death certificate, so was not only hurt at finding an official letter addressed to her late husband, but had to spend a morning sorting out her errant postbag.

What confounded matters more was the fact that she had already been sent ten letters earlier in the week by Littlewoods Personal Finance Ltd, again with her name on, but with other people’s personal and financial information.

As it turns out, Littlewoods Personal Finance Ltd is a joint venture between Barclaycard and Littlewoods, providing credit cards and personal loans to the U.K. market.

The widow, who said her husband had had a Barclaycard, generously put the mistake down to a possible computer error. A red-faced Barclaycard spokesman said they would be looking into the matter and offered profuse apologies.

Guest Article by Neil Camp