CREDIT CARDS - HAVES, HAVE-NOTS AND CANNOT-HAVES

Credit card ownership has grown enormously over the past twenty years. This article analyses two major data sets - the government's Family E xpenditure Survey and a credit card grantor's database of clients - to investigate who has credit cards and, for those who do not have them, whether they would be given cards if they applied for them. The resul ts show which sections of the population are averse to owning credit c ards, and some surprisingly low levels of ownership among, for example , those who have bank accounts.