Credit card providers find new ways to charge customers
Credit card providers are finding new ways to charge customers, following a crackdown on penalty charges, a consumer group has warned. Which? found that credit cards now come with a range of new ways for providers to extract cash from customers, including annual fees, penalties for low-usage and higher balance transfer costs, after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) ruled in April that the charges imposed when customers failed to make the minimum payment on their bill were unfair.Providers were forced to cut their default charges to £12 pounds or less, but are making up for the loss in other areas, according to Which?Which? editor, Martyn Hocking, said: "Credit card providers seem to be resorting to a raft of ingenious methods to recoup lost revenue following the OFT crackdown on penalty fees." Northern Rock now charges £2 per month for its base rate tracker credit card, the Co-op £2 per month for its Platinum Visa credit card, while Lloyds TSB has imposed a £35 penalty on some customers who have not used their card for some time. Barclaycard is also expected impose £10 to £20 fines on its one million 'inactive' customers.The cost of switching a balance from one card to another has also risen from around two per cent to between 2.5 and three per cent. Another tactic is cheaper debts to be repaid first, while loans at higher interest rates are left to wait, and grow in the meantime.
Share this..
Related stories
Police arrest five G20 demonstrators in terror probe
Just hours before the G20 Summit begins in London police have swooped on five alleged terrorists whom they believe were planning some form of attack on those attending the G20 Summit. The situation over the last few days has become critical for the Metropolitan police with all leave suspended and round-the-clock surveillance of would-be troublemakers and potential terror threats underway.
<...
Banks offering Help to Buy ISAs named
27/07/2015 Some of the banks and building societies that will be providing the governments Help to Buy ISA have been named. They are: • Barclays • Lloyds Banking Group • Nationwide • NatWest • Santander • Virgin Money Each of these banks has confirmed that they will be offering the help to buy ISA from December 2015, which was created by the government to help first t...
Read MoreHouse prices up again, to highest post-recession level
29/11/2013 The Nationwide has revealed that house prices in the UK have risen again, and are now at the highest rate since April 2008. The Nationwide, the second largest mortgage lender in the country, based the results on its own figures from lending, and suggests prices have risen by 0.6pc month-on-month, meaning the total 12-month growth figure now stands at 6.5pc. The market has picke...
Read MoreIs the UK on the verge of large scale industrial action?
There are rumours in today's financial press that UK unions are putting together a fund of up to £25 million which will be used to fight potential UK public sector service cuts if the Conservative party win the next general election. It is believed that the £25 million in question would normally have gone to the Labour Party but is now being withdrawn from Labour Party subscriptions to remain un...
Read MoreWhat will happen to the UK economy in early 2010?
Today's announcement that UK base rates will remain at 0.5% for the foreseeable future and a £25 billion increase in the quantitative easing program were pretty much as expected by analysts but nevertheless there is concern about the first quarter of 2010. The quantitative easing program is scheduled to end in February 2010 and many people are wondering exactly how the economy will react when thi...
Read More