Credit Cards The OFT prepares to cap charges

The Office of Fair Trading

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is at last preparing to take the big banks { bad credit loans } and other financial institutions that issue credit cards to task over charges. On credit cards, the average fee for exceeding the credit limit has climbed 40% to over £22. The charge for missing or late payments has also soared to over £22.

The OFT believes that these charges represent an illegal and { life insurance advisers } unfair penalty as the banks true costs of dealing with these situations are much lower. So it seems that the OFT is likely to try and cap such charges { insurance } at a figure closer to £15. The banks certainly won't be too keen on this, as such a decision would cost them in the region { personal secured loans } of £400 million per annum. We understand that the OFT could make an announcement in just a few weeks time.

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