Recent studies have revealed that despite the Bank of England’s decreased base rates, credit card interest rates have still jumped to their highest total for two years.

Although the base rate has been reduced from 5.25% to a new low of 0.5%, the average interest rate for a card holder reached a rise of 1.1%.

The highest interest rate has been witnessed by cash advancers, with these jumping by an average of 1.7% to 24.99% since April 2007. Customers, as a result are now paying an average of 0.9% more on purchases.

Sean Gardner, director of a financial firm said: “This really is a case of the rise and rise of credit card charges.”

Therefore consumer groups are worried that ballooning rates along with credit card debt standing at £64.8 billion, has promoted an additional £712.8 million in yearly income for credit card providers.

Gardner touched on this fear: “Even when we started monitoring average credit card interest rates they were already around 16% - so to see them continue to increase is testament to how much the card companies feel they can get away with.”