Abbey Zero Credit Card wins top honour

The Abbey Zero Credit Card scooped the top honour - Best New Credit Card Product of the Year - at the prestigious annual Cards Awards ceremony last Thursday.

The awards, now in their fourth year, were hosted by John Humphrys at Battersea Evolution in London and attracted over 1300 guests, including many of the industry's leading figures. They aim to recognise the industry and celebrate the many new initiatives and credit card programmes from across UK.

The category had some truly impressive entries and Abbey Zero saw off some stiff competition to scoop the top prize, with entries from American Express, Barclaycard, Bank of America and Halifax Bank of Scotland Ireland. The award recognises the card programme's impressive cardholder benefits, which include:

0% on balance transfers for the first 6 months
0% on purchases for the first 6 months
0% balance transfer fee (typically 3%)
0% fee on cash withdrawals (typically 3%)
0% fee on foreign purchases (typically 2.75%)
No annual fee
Ongoing interest rate for purchases of 18.9% APR

Launched in April 2008, Abbey Zero was developed for customers who want a simple transparent credit card. The card was immediately well received and heralded as the best credit card in the market, due to its innovative offering.

Roger Lovering, Managing Director of Credit Cards at Abbey, said; "The award category had some impressive entries and was well represented. Therefore, I am particularly pleased that Abbey Zero has been recognised by the industry. We had two entries shortlisted, the Abbey Credit Card and the eventual winner, the Abbey Zero Card, which received much media acclaim when it was launched last April. The enduring success of the Abbey Zero Card is the result of highly creative marketing strategies, the optimisation of internal channels, and the way that the card proposition was developed to create a truly customer focused valuable rewards programme".