Credit card woes for Virgin Money?
Since the EU referendum vote earlier in the year Virgin Money has had to tighten its requirements on credit cards. This follows a 41 per cent increase in debt compared to this time last year.
The news came about on Tuesday after a trading update which showed that credit card holders were already showing a debt of £2.2bn since the end of September this year.
This total is compared to last year’s figure of £1.6bn which was accumulated throughout 2015, this shows an increase of 41 per cent.
Virgin Money have to tighten control of who can take a credit card out in order to “protect the credit quality of new credit card lending”.
Although the move has been necessary sine the EU referendum vote the company does not believe it will have a massive effect on the firm as a whole.
The debt could come to card holders after poor saving returns due to lowering of interest rates.
Although recent changes have been made the company has seen business grow in recent years and more customers taking up credit cards would more than likely raise the amount of debt held on accounts. Which would overall show an increase.
Virgin Money chief executive officer Jayne-Anne Gadhia told Sky News: “I am delighted with the continued strong performance of the business in the third quarter of 2016.
“We have been encouraged by the relative strength of the UK economy immediately following the EU referendum result although we continue to look forward with caution.
“We are well placed to manage potential economic headwinds and remain confident of achieving a solid double-digit return on tangible equity for 2017.”
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