Shopping at the credit store

Credit : Store cards rank as most popular

from Busrep.co.za

By Ethel Hazelhurst

South African consumers most commonly access credit through retail store cards. Carel van Aardt, a research professor at the Bureau of Market Research at Unisa, said more than 16 percent of South Africans - about 5 million - used store cards.

Justmoney.co.za says:

If you have a store card you should check what rate of interest you are paying. In general, store cards tend to charge the highest rates of interest. With the easy credit climate of the past few years, it made sense for retailers to diversify out of their core business of selling stuff, into finance. Retailers have in effect become banks, selling credit instruments. This is shown by the buyout of Ellerines by African Bank. Some credit cards are offering balance transfer facilities, whereby you transfer the balance from your old card to another one at a better rate of interest. According to the rest of the article above, the major instrument that holds South African consumer debt is housing. You can now use a variety of sophisticated methods to ease the payment burden on your home loan. Whatever way you may find your self in hock, you should calculate how much debt you can consolidate, before you need debt management.