HSBC is one of the world’s leading banks and it has been well known for its huge credit card business. However, it has recently just sold part of its credit card business, including “Marbles” the well known credit card loved by many consumers.

The business has been sold to SAV Credit and it was sold for an impressive £385 million. The move will affect over 300,000 consumer accounts and whether it proves to be a popular decision will remain to be seen.

The reason given for the sale of these credit cards is that HSBC has actually developed its own branded card business recently. The Marbles credit card was said to be non-core and so HSBC did not see the need to keep it as well as their other cards.

It is not a huge shock to consumers however as Marbles has not been accepting any new business since April 2007. It has been losing out to more competitive credit cards and so to HSBC it was simply time to move things along.

The Marbles credit card continually had some market leading offers, which included 0% balance transfers and cash back.

Overall consumers do have mixed reactions to their accounts being sold on. On the one hand they are angry and worried about the changes which may occur. However there are some consumers who are also happy with the move and they feel it will bring positive changes as SAV Credit are a smaller company and they may have more time to develop the card into something better.