Announcement that the appeal by the banks, against the High Court ruling that Office of Fair Trading (OFT) can investigate the fairness of overdraft charges, has been thrown out of the appeal court was made today.

Despite the decision being unamimous and one of the judges even suggested that a further bank appeal would be a waste of time, the British Banking Association said “The banks continue to believe that the Regulations do not apply to these type of charges” and will apply to the House of Lords for permission to appeal again.

This means that although the banks are fast running out of options the waiver delaying the repayment of unfair bank charges remains in place until a final decision is made. The bank charges test case between the OFT and eight banks took place last year and it seems like the banks are going to fight it to the very end. Regardless this is fantastic news and you should ensure your bank charges claim is correctly submitted asap to be first in the queue when the banks are inevitably forced to pay up.

Just at a time when we all need a little more help than any other time ,with the present credit crunch upon us, one of the leading UK credit card providers Capital One are set to punish over 4 million of their customers with a rise in interest rates. This of course follows a cut by the Bank of England to 1.5% on the base rate, which brings borrowing to one of the lowest levels ever in history.

Capital One who are well known for targeting the lower income borrower have announced the shock plans on rising the rate of some of their cards by up to 6.94 percentage points. The move when it happens will leave unfortunate people holding these cards paying 26.01% on any purchases they make on cards and 29.94% when they need cash advance.

This news is certainly going to anger those holding the cards and who are now perhaps relying on them more than ever during the credit crunch. It will also anger the Government, as the recession threatens to deepen they have asked the credit card industry to offer fairer terms for the millions of individuals in the UK who rely on credit cards.

Just last month the Business secretary held a meeting with card issuers and companies agreed to give consumers plenty of warning before hiking up the rates on credit card charges. Along with this more support was to be offered by the companies for those who found themselves in debt due to over spending on credit cards.

While they offer debt help in one hand, in the other they are hiking up the interest rates which almost certainly will go towards getting people in more debt, which they could eventually find themselves unable to repay. Capital One of course could justify their actions by saying that “changes in the environment when it comes to lending means it now costs us more to lend”