Intelligent Finance withdraws offset card

70,000 customers will have to find an alternative credit card following a decision by Intelligent Finance to withdraw its 'offset' credit card.

Currently, offset card holders can reduce their interest payments through any savings or investments they hold with IF.

As spokesman for the Internet Bank which is owned by Halifax Bank of Scotland, said that IF’s original credit card platform dated from the inception of the company five years ago and could not support chip and pin and because only 10% of card customers used the offset option, the company could not justify the capital expenditure to switch to a new computer platform.

IF plans to move its offset card customers to new chip-and-pin cards operated by Halifax, with a standard rate of 12.9%. The withdrawl of the card is likely to anger many customers who were previously paying no interest because they were able to offset their card debts with their savings.