Related Credit Card Article

"Ultimatum given to credit card companies"

By admin | December 29th, 2008 | Credit Cards

Credit card issuers have recently been given an ultimatum by the government with regards to the charges, fees, and interest rates that they are charging consumers. Government officials have said that credit card firms need to take action and make things fairer for borrowers otherwise they will have to intervene to ensure that this gets done. The credit card companies were given a deadline by which time they needed to ensure that measures had been put into place to comply with the government’s wishes.

Meetings have recently taken place between credit card industry officials and the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, and this came about after the Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed concern about the way that credit card firms were fleecing consumers, and about the crippling rates of interest that were being charged on credit cards even though the base interest rate had plummeted over recent months.

However, one industry official said: ‘The agreement between the Treasury and credit card companies looks like a classic summit communiqué – which says a lot and means nothing. For example there is no commitment on the ‘order of payments’ issue which sees most card companies apply payments to customers’ cheapest debts first. And a one month window isn’t enough time for struggling borrowers to reach agreements with all of their creditors, three months would have been better, along with a commitment not to apply for a Charging Order to take possession of borrowers’ homes.’

He added: ‘What’s more, a likely result of what the Treasury has achieved is that it will get harder for people who want to take out a new credit card to be accepted. The Government needs to understand that it can’t control both the supply of credit and the price.’

Tags: credit card companies

Related Articles:

• Credit card firms will have to be fairer with consumers

  Over recent weeks credit card firms in the UK have agreed with government officials that they will bring in increased measures to ensure that credit card customers are treated more fairly. As part of the new measures credit card firms have agreed that they will no longer impose sudden overnight interest rate hikes on consumers,...

• Credit and store card crackdown welcomed by Nationwide

  A major High Street lender has said that it welcomes the recent crackdown on credit and store cards, following recent proposals that were put forward by the government. The proposals by the government have been met with mixed reactions in some parts, and were put forward to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. The...

• Nationwide wants UK to follow US with credit card regulations

  Leading UK building society, Nationwide, has recently said that the UK needs to follow in the footsteps of the United States when it comes to credit card regulations relating to the allocation of repayments. The building society said that the UK needed to bring in regulations that would change the way in which credit card...

• Credit card firms continue to find ways to fleece customers

  According to a recent report many credit card providers are continuing to find ways to fleece their customers financially, despite pledging to act more fairly following calls from government officials and campaigners. Industry officials claim that credit card firms have found a number of sneaky ways to get more money from their customers, and some...

• Borrowers will receive help from credit card firms

  Credit card firms have spent more than their fair share of time in the financial news headlines for various reasons, and not always for the right reasons. Recently, credit card firms have come under fire as a result of the high rates of interest, charges, and fees that they are applying to customers’ accounts and...

Other Recent Articles

Increase in availability of interest free credit cards

A recent report has claimed that the number of interest free balance transfer credit cards is on the increase, with...

By admin | March 13, 2010 | Read More

Cash back credit cards set to become increasingly rare

The rewards based credit card has become very popular over recent years, particularly amongst those that tend to repay their...

By admin | March 9, 2010 | Read More

Capital One customers hit by huge increases on credit cards

According to recent reports many credit card customers that have cards with Capital One have been stung with huge increases...

By admin | March 5, 2010 | Read More

New high for credit card interest rates

Recently released figures have shown that credit card interest rates in the UK have reached a new high, despite the...

By admin | March 3, 2010 | Read More

Credit card firms reject many proposals

A number of proposals have been put forward recently to try and increase fairness for credit card customers, with the...

By admin | March 1, 2010 | Read More