Brits' wallets harbour millions of credit cards which never get used, according to new figures from Morgan Stanley.

Perhaps in a sign that people are becoming less willing to be mired in a credit landslide, the figures showed that one in four of us has one credit card that they have not used in the past year - while one in nine has two and one in ten staggeringly has three.

On average each of us carries round 2.1 credit cards on our persons, but these figures show that this is not necessarily cause for alarm.

Morgan Stanley's Patrick Muir explained: "There has been much speculation about the increasing use of plastic in the UK but our report shows that British cardholders are perhaps more savvy than they have been given credit for.

"Millions of cardholders are taking advantage of loyalty schemes for their everyday spending, with these cards least likely to be lying idle in wallets."

Dormant cards, though, do present one potential problem - that of identity fraud. Accounts can remain open even in the event that a rarely-used card is cut up or left in a draw, so people are advised to be vigilant to close any account which they do not intend to be using and, if they have not done so, be sure not to lose track of a dormant card's whereabouts.




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