Interest free will never die but it will fade away

Just six credit cards offering interest free periods on new purchases for longer than ten months are left on the market, claims Sainsbury's Bank.

Overall, 66 credit cards offer interest free periods on new purchases with an average term of 196 days, or six and a half months.

"There is a huge choice of cards offering interest-free periods on purchases, but the length of these varies a great deal," said Donald Macleod, credit cards manager at Sainsbury's Bank.

Six offer three months or less, 12 offer between four and five months interest-free and 14 offer a seven to nine month term without interest charges.

While balance transfer credit cards may offer longer periods on older balances, new purchases are slipping to as low as three months in some cases.

Balance transfer credit cards are also becoming more constrictive however, with two fifths of cards charging a fee of up to three per cent of the balance.

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