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Credit card increases need to be questioned

January 6, 2009 by admin  
Filed under News, News-Credit-Cards

1 Comment

Over the past few days credit card firms have pledged to make changes to the way that they hike up interest rates on credit cards, which has come under intense fire recently. However, whilst credit card firms are trying to make changes to stop these overnight interest rate hikes, there are people that may have recently already had their credit card interest rates hiked for no apparently reason, often adding a small fortune to their repayments.

Those that have seen their credit card rates go up in this way should contact their credit card provider to query why this has happened, as some industry officials have stated that in cases where the credit card firm is not able to justify the rate increase they may actually lower it back to its original rate.

However, consumers need to ensure that they do not just accept the rate increases without question, and that they find out why the credit card firm has increased their rate at a time when the base rate has actually plummeted.

An official from the Financial Ombudsman Service said that there were more and more cases where the creditard firms had been unable to justify a rate increase and had been forced to lower the rate back to its original level as a result.

He said: ‘This is something we are starting to see increasingly more of. What we would want to see is an individual risk assessment of that customer, not some vague statement as to why lending money is more dangerous. Firms are frequently unable to produce this.’

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Comments

One Response to “Credit card increases need to be questioned”
  1. marilyn says:
    March 2, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    I have a Lloyds TSB Credit card which I have not used for years I make at least the minimum payment each month but my balance is not altering. I seems that If I pay £50 then my interest is £52, if I pay more then there sems to be more interest. I am a pensioner now and feel that this debt, although paid over and over, will never be paid off. What is Government legislation for credit card companies and banks writing off certain debts and how would I go about requesting this?

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