Consumers who have loans">personal loans are to face increases to their repayments as lenders forward the burden of the credit crunch onto borrowers

Michelle Slade, an analyst at Moneyfacts, said: “It's not only mortgage rates that continue to increase, so too have the rates and monthly repayments on personal loans… Since the beginning of the year more than half of lenders offering personal loans have made changes to their rates.”

The trend for lenders to increase their rates for those with personal loans has been all too evident in the last few weeks. Barclaycard have raised their rates by 0.5% with Lombard Direct by 1% and NatWest by a whopping 2.5%.

Despite the growing trend there are some lenders who have actually reduced some of their rates. Moneyback Bank, Britannia BS, Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank have all reduced selected rates since the beginning of the year.

The recent £50billion offer of the Government to help the banking sector coupled with the Bank of England’s second consecutive cut in interest rates was hoped to bring some respite for borrowers. But it appears that banks will generally be unwilling to pass on any benefits to their customers opting to improve their profit margins instead. Banks trying to increase their profit margins at the expense of customers, surely not?