Huge rise in credit card borrowing

HOUSEHOLDS’ appetites for credit card borrowing increased in the run-up-to Christmas, a Bank of England survey of lenders shows.

There was a significant increase in demand for borrowing on credit cards in the fourth quarter of 2018, the Bank’s Credit Conditions Survey said.

There was also an increase in default rates on credit card loans in the fourth quarter.

People using their plastic to borrow may find they have shorter interest-free periods to clear their debts before interest charges start to kick in.

Lenders reported that the length of interest-free periods for balance transfers and new purchases on credit cards decreased significantly in the fourth quarter. However, demand for credit card borrowing was predicted to fall back during the postChristmas period.

The survey asks banks and building societies about trends in credit conditions in the previous three months. THE UK is braced for a bitter weekend with an Arctic cocktail of frost, ice and snow in many locations.

Almost everywhere is vulnerable to a wintry shower, with snow even possible on higher ground in the south.

Plenty of dry and bright spells are likely but it will feel very cold in the brisk northerly flow.

There will be a frosty start for all on Saturday with a risk of ice on untreated surfaces. It will be a cold day with a mixture of sunny spells and wintry showers.

Maximum temperatures will be around 2 to 6C in the north and 3 to 9C in the south but it will feel more like 0 to -3C in the icy breeze.

It will be another cold and frosty start on Sunday.

But it will be dry and sunny in many places but a band of showers, wintry through the morning, will sink southeast during the day.

More frequent showers will feed in across western Scotland and Northern Ireland, falling as snow inland for Scotland.

Maximum temperatures will be around 5 to 6C but again feeling closer to freezing, and below zero for Scotland.

A spokesperson for The Weather Channel said: “The overall pattern is for temperatures to remain below normal across the British Isles through the end of the month as we expect blocking high pressure to dominate across the north Atlantic to Greenland.

“This will result in cold plunges of air from the Arctic to spread across Europe with the continued risk of wintry precipitation down to lower levels at times.”