A report by Moneyexpert.com has estimated that the British public paid a total of £553m in credit penalty fees during 2005, with at least 1 in 5 people being hit by a charge from their credit card company, bank, or other financial institution.

The most common reason for the charges was making a late payment to a credit card account, an area which is under investigation by the OFT after concerns were raised that such charges were being kept ‘unduly high’.

The survey also estimates that up to 5% of people have had to cough up £100 or more in charges over the year.

Other reasons for penalty fees being imposed included going over an overdraft limit, and early repayment fees for clearing loan or mortgage debts earlier than originally planned.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 13th, 2006 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Fees and Charges. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.