Consumers struggling to manage their budgets should beware of credit card providers hiking up rates of interest that apply after the initial 0% introductory period. Last week, American-owned card giant MBNA, which runs seven million of the 70m cards in circulation in the UK, raised the interest payable to a staggering 34.9% a year - higher than most store cards.

In fact, according to Moneysupermarket research, nearly one third (31%) of credit cardholders have had the APR – annual percentage rate – on their existing card hiked up in the past year. As well as MBNA, this includes Egg, Capital One, Lloyds TSB and Barclaycard.

This is why consumers should look closely at their current card and see how it compares with the rest of the market, says Steve Wiley, head of credit cards at Moneysupermarket. "Despite all the doom and gloom there are still many excellent zero per cent purchase or balance transfer deals."

What credit card should you opt for?

---

Tag this article :