New card offers credit-personal loan combination
24/03/2005
A credit card-personal loan combination is being offered to customers by the banking giant Barclays.
Combinations, as the project is called, will be offered to 100,000 customers as a way to help "save money and reduce debts more quickly", the bank says.
The new card operates as a normal credit card with a typical interest rate of 9.9 per cent, but cardholders would be offered the chance four times a year to move their balance to a separate loan "pot" with an interest rate of 6.9 per cent and option of fixed repayment.
Although there is a minimum monthly fee to pay, customers are welcome to pay more should they choose to, with payments automatically going towards the most expensive debts first.
However, the Guardian has claimed that the card payments are considerably more complicated than the bank is letting on, echoing recent criticism of lending companies.
Barclaycard has announced that it will watch the results of the Combinations experiment "with interest".
Combinations, as the project is called, will be offered to 100,000 customers as a way to help "save money and reduce debts more quickly", the bank says.
The new card operates as a normal credit card with a typical interest rate of 9.9 per cent, but cardholders would be offered the chance four times a year to move their balance to a separate loan "pot" with an interest rate of 6.9 per cent and option of fixed repayment.
Although there is a minimum monthly fee to pay, customers are welcome to pay more should they choose to, with payments automatically going towards the most expensive debts first.
However, the Guardian has claimed that the card payments are considerably more complicated than the bank is letting on, echoing recent criticism of lending companies.
Barclaycard has announced that it will watch the results of the Combinations experiment "with interest".
