Savvy consumers paying down plastic debt

Credit card issuers could be receiving less revenue as Australian consumers make a greater effort to pay off their credit card debt, research shows.

Datamonitor's 2010 survey of credit card customers shows 48.43 per cent haven't paid any interest on their cards in the last 12 months, compared to rate of 40.23 per cent in 2009 and 39.07 per cent in 2008.

Senior analyst at Datamonitor and author of the research Harry Senlitonga said the global financial crisis was the cause for this shift in behavior.

"We have seen that consumers are not just becoming more price conscious, but also more savvy than before in searching and using their credit cards," he said.

If this trend continues, Datamonitor said the industry would review credit card prices and that a fee income model may be preferred to offset the loss of interest rate income.

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