Around three million Barclaycard customers will see their card’s APR cut by between 2.5% and 5%, with an acknowledgment from the company that many people were facing difficult times. The lucky 3m will be the card provider’s lowest risk customers - a further 9m Barclaycard holders will not see any change.

Critics have pointed out that the credit card industry has thus far not passed on the reductions in the Bank of England Base Rate, but card issuers say that in this economy there is an increased risk of people defaulting, which has meant they have to keep average APRs high to cover the costs of bad debt.

It remains to be seen whether other card issuers follow Barclaycard’s lead - it would appear that egg plc certainly aren’t.

Some carriers of the Egg visa card have been hit with a swingeing hike in the APR of their card, with new rates of 26.9% reported on accounts that used to feature rates closer to 20%. This type of rate increase may seem strange in an age of plummeting interest rates, yet the true purpose of the hike is revealed later in the communication from the bank.

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