Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I THE BASICS OF PAYMENT CARDS
- PART II EASY MONEY
- PART III THE PUZZLE OF PAYMENT CARDS
- PART IV REFORMING PAYMENT SYSTEMS
- PART V OPTIMIZING CONSUMER CREDIT MARKETS AND BANKRUPTCY POLICY
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Country-Level Data
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I THE BASICS OF PAYMENT CARDS
- PART II EASY MONEY
- PART III THE PUZZLE OF PAYMENT CARDS
- PART IV REFORMING PAYMENT SYSTEMS
- PART V OPTIMIZING CONSUMER CREDIT MARKETS AND BANKRUPTCY POLICY
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Country-Level Data
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
I start in 2003 at a parliamentary hearing in London. The witnesses are an impressive group, the CEOs of most of the large issuers of credit cards in the United Kingdom. The topic is the concern of a select Treasury Committee about the high cost and excessive use of credit cards. From the perspective of the media, the high point of the hearing was a sound bite from an exchange with Matthew Barrett, Chief Executive Officer of Barclays Bank. In the course of questioning Mr. Barrett about the high interest charges on the cards that Barclays issues, one member of the committee jests that “you probably have a Cahoot card in your wallet,” referring to a low-cost card issued by a British Internet bank. In Washington, you could predict with great certainty that the CEO of Citibank would respond tartly that he of course carries a CitiCard and uses it everywhere he goes. In the more casual British atmosphere, however, Barrett offers us a lapse of apparent sincerity:
I do not borrow on credit cards; it is too expensive.
I have four young adults in my family, and I give them advice on “don't get too much debt on credit cards” and they are very literate and fluent and extremely well informed because of who their dad is, but it does not matter a w[h]it; they still run their credit cards.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Charging AheadThe Growth and Regulation of Payment Card Markets around the World, pp. 1 - 6Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006