Millions of credit card holders told to 'check' after 'insulting' hike

An urgent warning for millions of credit card customers has been issued - with cardholders urged to check accounts now after ‘insulting’ hikes. Some providers have raised the interest charged on their cards by 11 percentage points in the last decade.

A table published by the Sun newspaper and Totally Money shows a 10 year change of seven per cent for Bank of Scotland, while Barclaycard is up 6 per cent from April 2014, and First Direct up five per cent from the same period. Halifax is up six per cent, HSBC up six per cent and John Lewis up an eye-watering 11 per cent.

Other hikes show Virgin Money up six per cent and TSB has risen seven per cent while Santander is up five per cent but Sainsbury's Bank an eye-watering ten per cent. Nationwide is up seven per cent and Metro Bank up five per cent. M&S Bank has risen seven per cent while Lloyds is up eight per cent.

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Just 10 years ago, in April 2024, the typical credit card representative APR sat at 17.9 per cent. But in April 2024, the average rate is 24.8 per cent representing a 6.9 percentage point increase. Alastair Douglas, chief executive of TotallyMoney said: "Seeing your interest rate jump when the Bank of England's rate hasn't moved for almost a year can seem insulting.

"However, long before the recent base rate hikes, banks have been slowly turning up the dial on how much they charge customers for their borrowing. Even since last summer, when the base rate was last increased, credit card APRs have risen by another 0.77 percentage points.

"At the same time, offers have been watered down, with the average interest-free periods on both balance transfer and purchase cards shortened, while fees have been hiked and products pulled from the market."