UK’s credit card debt woes continue

Despite the Office of Fair Trading setting a limit of £12 on charges charges, British consumers paid out at least £230 million in penalties to their credit card providers in the past year, according to research commissioned by moneysupermarket.com.

And the study, which was carried out by YouGov, found that as credit card debt problems were mounting up for millions of consumers, those in the north-east of England have been avoiding penalty charges most effectively.

“Penalty fees still affect a significant proportion of the population and providers are raking in some hefty cash,” said Rob Kenley, head of credit cards moneysupermarket.com.

The UK’s payment association Apacs revealed recently that more than £321 billion was spent on plastic cards in the UK during 2006.