The Truth About Credit Cards.com

A recent study from global market research company Synovate found that during the third quarter of the year, about 363 million of 1.29 billion credit card offers were mailed to high-risk households, or those using more than 30% of their available credit.

Despite the ongoing mortgage crisis, which has severly limited these types of households from tapping into their home equity, they are continuing to be targeted.

These so-called “ultra utilization” card holders tend to be more profitable to credit card issuers because they can be charged higher interest rates, and typically carry balances which result in costly finance charges.

The Synovate study says “ultra utilization” households make up 28% of all credit card users, and receive an average of 75 credit card mailers per year.

And of these households, 81% carry a balance each month, with the average revolving balance a staggering $9,722, despite having lower than average incomes.

Credit card mailers also go to other card users, but seem to decrease as credit utilization levels decline.

Heavy users, those using between 9% and 30% of their available credit, received 266.2 million offers in third quarter 2007, while those with average utilization between 3% to 9% only received 234 million offers. Households without credit cards received just over 161 million offers.

The Synovate study found that the ultra utilization group were also the most likely to respond to the offers, so in essence, it keeps the “ultra users” in their place.

Remember, total credit utilization is important factor in determining your credit score, so be sure to keep this number as low as possible.