According to the consumers association Which? Credit card companies are continuing to increase their fees.

According to the consumers association Which? Credit card companies are continuing to increase their fees.

It says that since the Office of Fair Trading ordered a cut in default fees to £12 last year ingenious methods have been used by creditors to recoup the income they lost.

The charges outlined by Which? are raised interest rates for cash withdrawals, annual card fees, balance transfer charges and low usage fees.

Martyn Hocking, editor of Which? Money says: “Credit card providers seem to be resorting to a raft of ingenious methods to recoup lost revenue following the OFT crackdown on penalty fees.”

Chiltern’s Simon Duffy says “Customers should make sure they are fully aware of the fees and charges they will incur when using a credit card.”

“The charges may seem reasonably low but if you take the low-usage fees from ¬¨¬£20 to ¬¨¬£35 per year, for customers only repaying the minimum ¬¨¬£5 amount this equals 4 to 7 months repayments.”

“This is particularly relevant for people transferring their debt to a 0 per cent credit card because they will be repaying less over a 12 month period if their credit card provider is charging a low-usage fee.”

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