American Express today announced that they would be raising the charges for late payment on their credit cards.

This is the second rise by Amex in the last year and brings them into line with the majority of their competitors. The rise is from £10 to £12 and affects all the cards in their range including Blue Sky, Platinum and Nectar.

American Express' charges have now risen by a third in six months, in January customers were charged £8 for late payment. A spokesman for the company put the blame on the rising costs associated with lending

"These increases reflect a rise in our administration costs associated with handling accounts in default. Our fees are in line with recommendations made by the OFT in April 2006."

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report in 2006 made clear that the credit card companies were charging their customers too much for default charges and recommended that £12 be the upper limit for these penalties. Since that time all the major companies have lowered their fees within this amount.