Nationwide Building Society welcomes the Credit and Store Card Review to be published today by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

The review focuses on a number of important credit card practices within the industry including order of payments.

Nationwide’s product and marketing director, Chris Rhodes, said: “We are delighted that BIS have included order of payments in the review.

“We think all UK credit card providers should allocate payments in a positive way.

“The US has already recognised that the practice of paying the cheapest debt first is unfair to customers and is forcing lenders to be more consumer-friendly."

He added: “Nationwide has always operated a positive order of payments as we recognise that an adverse order of payments penalises the most vulnerable customers, who can ill-afford additional interest charges, especially in the current climate.”

In his view, it is time that UK consumers had this extra financial pressure taken off them.

This month, Nationwide announced that its Savings index for September had seen a monthly increase of ten points to 87, while the future savings index rose 16 points to 121.