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23/09/2010 -
With consumer credit scores falling, an increasing number of credit card issuers are limiting payment offerings to existing customers.In the past three years, the number of credit cards that are restricted to existing customers has increased nearly five-fold - from only eight cards in 2007 to 45 credit cards in 2010, research by market analyst firm Defaqto found.
The 462 percent surge in restricting who is swiping at point-of-sale terminals is in part due to the tighter lending criteria that issuers have adopted. By doing this, issuers have a better understanding of cardholders' financial status.
"It seems that credit card lenders are increasingly focusing their marketing upon their existing customers. For instance, it is no longer unusual to see credit cards restricted to a provider's current account customers, and some of these are differentiated from their generally available cards by offering a preferential deal, such as a longer zero percent introductory offer," said Kevin Bray, an insight analyst at Defaqto.
This trend is especially prevalent in the UK, where major financial institutions, including Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax, HSBC, RBS and Santander, all have credit cards available only to customers who already bank with them.
