{"id":386731,"date":"2020-04-03T13:08:26","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T11:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=386731"},"modified":"2020-04-03T13:08:26","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T11:08:26","slug":"this-is-how-much-money-the-average-south-african-owes-on-their-credit-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/386731\/this-is-how-much-money-the-average-south-african-owes-on-their-credit-card\/","title":{"rendered":"This is how much money the average South African owes on their credit card"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit reporting agency Transunion has published a new report showing that demand for consumer credit remains high, with the total number of credit card accounts increased substantially in Q4 2019.<\/p>\n

The group noted that credit card balances continue their upward trajectory in 2019, showing an increase of 17.9% YoY. At the same time, balances reached their highest level ever despite the slow-down in originations (new applications).<\/p>\n

“Card issuers have been aggressive in extending more credit to offset slower growth in new consumers taking on cards,” the group said.<\/p>\n

“Lenders continue to increase limits aggressively with total credit limit growth of 15.6% which is the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.<\/p>\n

“This increase in balances may also be stimulated by the need for consumers to use credit as a means to finance day-to-day expenses as current economic conditions remain volatile.”<\/p>\n

Transunion found that the average South African owes R19,265<\/strong> on their credit card account, while the average credit line (the amount of credit a person may borrow from) is R32,973<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Responsible lending<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite TransUnion reporting a third consecutive quarter of increased delinquencies across all forms of credit, the group noted that credit cards had the smallest increase \u2013 up 60 bps YoY in Q4 2019.<\/p>\n

This is likely because of a continued shift to lower-risk consumers, with 94% of all new credit cards issued to above-prime consumers, the group said.<\/p>\n

“Further analysis shows that 57% of new credit cards were to super prime consumers, up from 47% a year ago, indicating that credit card lenders are approaching portfolio growth selectively and with caution.<\/p>\n

“This strategy of focusing primarily on low risk borrowers has impacted new card account growth rates, with originations increasing just 1.8% YoY in the most recent quarter.<\/p>\n

“But at the same time, the shift to lower risk borrowers has fuelled growth in new card credit limits, with average origination amounts increasing by 19.9% YoY, as card issuers are generally more comfortable in extending larger limits to consumers with good risk scores.”<\/p>\n

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Read:\u00a0It\u2019s time to change the way our VAT system works \u2013 tax expert<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit reporting agency Transunion has published a new report showing that demand for consumer credit remains high, with the total number of credit card accounts increased substantially in Q4 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":204172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26,11687],"class_list":["post-386731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline","tag-transunion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386731"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386743,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386731\/revisions\/386743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}