Convenience cheques should carry a health warning

15.07.2005 Calls for ‘health warnings’ to accompany so-called ‘convenience cheques’ came at Parliament’s second reading of the Consumer Credit Bill yesterday. Many credit card providers issue their card holders with ‘convenience cheques’ from time to time.

These cheques enable the card holder to write a cheque which then draws on their credit card. However what is often left unclear, is that such cheques swallow up higher rates of interest than the normal credit card spending and have shorter or no interest-free period at all.
 
One of the biggest UK lenders, Nationwide, has criticised the bill for not providing regulations to protect consumers from being misled. Nationwide proposed that ‘health warnings’ accompany convenience cheques, in which terms and conditions of spending would be clearly stated.