Retailer credit cards:— a mature product about to go into decline? Available to Purchase

The long‐awaited report of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission into the supply of credit card services came out at the end of August. Although its deals primarily with bank credit cards, nonetheless it has important implications for retailer credit cards — for example, will retailers start to charge fees for cards or will they continue to issue them free? This special feature examines in some detail the retailer credit card market in the UK and suggests that retailers would be better served if they saw their credit card offerings as part of their overall retail support service.