Supermarket Financial Products 'Overpriced'
Report by Which? says that better value financial services can be had away frm the supermarkets
2nd November 2006
A new report by consumer group Which? suggests that customers of supermarkets who also take out their financial products such as credit cards are paying 'over the odds' for the convenience of collecting financial services with their groceries.
The report highlighted an extreme case of a Morrisons credit card charging 18.9% APR compared to a market leading card from Halifax that charges a flat rate of 5.9%, less than a third of the supermarket's offering, but said that similarly poor deals were to be found across a wide range of finance products now offered by retailers.
A personal loan of £5,000 from Marks and Spencer, for example, may cost nearly £400 more in interest charges than a deal from a 'best buy' finance provider, while consumers would typically pay £153 a year more by using a supermarket credit card instead of one from a major bank.
Not all products are poor deals though, with life insurance from Asda, Sainsbury's and M&S singled out as being goos value, while the Sainsbury's savings account offered one of the best deals available.
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