An Office of Fair Trading ruling that credit card companies should cut their penalty fees to £12 is being circumvented by the imposition of additional charges on customers, the Welsh Liberal Democrat Social Justice Spokesperson, Peter Black has said.
Mr. Black was commenting on a 'Which?' report that highlighted 10 ways in which the credit card companies have put up their other charges in an effort to reclaim lost revenue. Tactics include imposing an annual fee for having a card, a shorter interest-free period to catch people out, a ridiculous 'low-use' fee and higher rates for cash withdrawals, or for using the card abroad.
"To be fair to the credit card companies they did say that they would find ways of slapping on new charges to make up for the loss of the millions that they were extorting from customers in sky-high default fees - and they've certainly kept their promise," said Mr. Black.
"Credit card companies continue to offer eye-watering credit limits to people to sucker them into debt and keep charging them interest, despite the growing mountain of personal debt in this country. They get caught out by the Office of Fair Trading over penalty fees, but instead of mending their ways, they simply invent new charges.
"If Labour are in any way concerned about the way that credit card customers are being fleeced, they should refer this new raft of trumped-up charges for another urgent investigation."
