No crunching credit card debt

It is, perhaps, the strangest thing about the credit crunch; it does not appear where you most expect it.

Take, for example, credit card debt. We are well over a year into the crisis and so far, there has no impact on UK credit card balances. Once we got over the usual Christmas spending binge, credit card debt began to creep upwards.

This is not to deny that there are some very serious problems in our financial system. Rather, it is to point out that the crisis is quite localized. So far, the interbank market and mortgage approvals have been the two largest causalities.

Will the crisis spread? Will we wake up and find that our credit cards no longer work? Will our credit limits suddenly shrink? My head says no, but my heart says maybe.