UK’s World Cup gamblers forecast to pay £23.8m in interest and fees

BRITONS WILL pay an estimated £23.8m solely on interest and transaction fees from using credit cards to gamble on the 2018 FIFA World Cup, new research suggests.

Credit card payments used for gambling are treated by lenders as a cash advance. This usually means the borrower is charged a transaction fee, a higher interest rate, and will start paying interest from the moment they transact.

TotallyMoney, which provides free personal credit reports, used data from Defaqto to calculate an average cash transaction fee of 3.23 per cent and an average cash advance interest rate of 28.13 per cent. Using these figures, they revealed that close to £23.8m will be spent on interest and fees alone.

The study follows a recent report by that suggests Britons will bet £2.5bn on the World Cup. It is thought that 10– 20 per cent of all bets are paid for with credit cards.

Lack of knowledge is thought to be the main reason for incurring such costly fees. A TotallyMoney survey of 1,000 people revealed that only 1 in 10 are aware that lenders treat gambling with a credit card as a cash advance.

“Borrowers usually get an interest-free grace period on regular purchases, which doesn’t apply when a credit card is used to gamble,” TotallyMoney CEO Alastair Douglas said. “It’s easy to see why people think they have time to pay off their gambling debts without paying interest.

“Hopefully, knowing the true cost of placing a bet online will make people think twice before gambling with credit.”