The Money Advice Trust has urged lenders to base their rates more in line with the Bank Rate.
The charity says the Bank of England’s latest August 2010 ‘trends in lending’ figures shows that the cost of consumer credit remains high.
In June 2008 the average interest rate on a credit card was 12.08% – giving credit card providers a margin of just over 7% above the base rate today the average rate is 12.38% – giving credit card providers a margin over base rate of nearly 12%. Despite the Bank of England keeping wholesale borrowing costs at an all time low for 17 months, credit card rates have actually increased, the charity says.
Similarly, in June 2008 the average interest rate on a new personal loan was 9.4%, a margin of 4.4% over the Bank of England base rate. Today the average margin over base rate is more than 6%.
Louisa Parker, head of research and policy at the Money Advice Trust, said: “The cost of borrowing on a credit card has remained entirely decoupled from the Bank of England base rate
