Profligacy Of Credit Card Companies To Be Stymied
28 November 2008
The avaricious rapacity of credit card companies is to have an end brought to it, and they have been tersely forewarned by the competition watchdogs, that they better bring their prices down or else!
It was the business secretary Lord Mandelson that mooted their shenanigans and said that credit card bosses could expect a toughening up in relation to the unjust costs that they are punishing their customers with.
The Government have been angered by the credit card companies, who have been continuing to increase charges, even though the government implemented a cutting of the base rate.
Mandelson stated that should this sort of practice carry on, then it will not be a case of if, but when the Office of Fair Trading are called in for resolution.
It must be a case of these companies treating their customers in a fair manner. If this does not happen soon then action will be taken to get the credit card companies to toe the line and they could possibly face considerable fines.
And our Prime Minister has also elucidated his stance on the matter via an erudite articulation in the Commons:
"We have got to have proper measures to regulate the industry where people are charging exorbitant rates and we will take whatever action is necessary."
The figures read like a bent bookies books and the rates charged on credit cards has risen from 17.2 per cent to 17.6 per cent in just six months. It may seen negligible but if anything it should have dropped, when taking into account the fact that the base rate has been cut by two whole per cent.
This is an average increase of 0.4 per cent and some customers have seen far greater a rise. The store cards that people have are really onerous, with some carrying an interest rate of 27 per cent which is more than a quarter.
If that sounds like one big ridiculous scandal then get a card with UCS, H Samuel, or Ann Summers. Then you can enjoy the fundamentally wrong rate of 30.9 per cent if you do not pay by direct debit.
Good old Labour MP Jim Devine has introduced a bill in Westminster and it is designed to cap the charges that are blatantly spiralling out of measure. He said the following:
"I have been inundated by further examples of abuse by credit card companies, including once case where a person was charged 9850 (sic) per cent interest.
"There is no point in the Government investing in hardworking families if all they are doing with the money is giving it to credit card firms."
People with low incomes are really suffering at the hands of the credit card companies and the situation is only going to worsen with Christmas nearing, and people subsidising the purchasing of presents and an ephemeral veil of catharsis.
The Citizens Advice Bureau is concern personified and have urged with credit card customers to yaw abruptly from the head-on temptation of credit card cheques this festive season.
The payment body known as APACS represent credit card companies and say that they are willing to negotiate with the government.