Abacus Daily Debt News

Debtors ‘face hikes’ in fees and interest rates

Millions of debtors could be adversely affected as banks look at different ways to raise capital, including the implementation of higher interest rates and annual fees applied to credit cards - necessary to deal with the rise in debts on such cards.

This is according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, which noted that there has been a 50 per cent increase in this kind of debt, the Daily Mail reports.

And the company has predicted that up to 1,000 people a day will be forced to seek some form of  debt management help when they find they are unable to keep up with the payments.

According to the study, Precious Plastic, “credit will become more expensive as lenders attempt to claw back revenue”.

It has been suggested that interest rates - many of which are already more than 20 per cent - may climb above 30 per cent.

However, the new lending code - which came into effect on November 1st - was recently described by Robert Skinner of the Lending Standards Board as being beneficial to consumers and will cover issues relating to good practice in credit and charge cards.

By Sarah Adie