Finance

What you need to know about credit card debt in South Africa

Staff Writer

 ·10 Nov 2016

New data from credit bureau Compuscan, shows the average amount owed by South Africans on their store credit cards.

In-store cards include those credit cards typically offered by department stores like Woolworths, Edgars, Ackermans and Foschini which enable customers to purchase items over a fixed period, but at a fairly high interest rate.

Compuscan said that as many as 2.97 million store card loans were opened over the past year – valued at R14.71 billion.

It said that the average number of open store cards per person is two (1.88), while the average current balance over the last year is R2,836.

By comparison 470,000 regular credit card loans were opened over the past year totalling R9.94 billion, the credit bureau said.

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It said that the average age of a person who owns a store card is 41, while people in their 30s have more than four store cards on average, the most out of any age group.

People in their 50s however, despite owning far fewer store cards, have a much higher average balance than any other age group – R6,100.

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