Plastic Surgeon here again with some info on those "lovely?? credit card companies!

According to the finance information service Moneyfacts, it appears that some credit card companies have been quietly and sneakily raising your charges so they can restore their profit margins!

Moneyfacts' latest survey shows that 6 credit card companies have increased their charges in the past 2 weeks. They are:

The Co-operative Bank GE Money Marks & Spencer Nationwide Northern Rock

The survey shows that offers to transfer a card balance free of charge have virtually disappeared and that banks are responding to last year's ruling by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that credit card default fees should be cut to just £12.

"Battling with rising bad debts and a huge loss in revenue from the capping of default fees, credit card providers have been forced to look for other ways to maintain their income stream," said Michelle Slade of Moneyfacts. "Changes range from interest rate increases, by as much as 10% (on cash transactions), to shortening of interest-free deals," she added. "Cash withdrawal fees and foreign usage charges are rising, but perhaps the sneakiest of all is the requirement to make purchases as part of a 0% balance transfer deal".

Moneyfacts says Lloyds TSB is being especially sneaky by negating the apparent advantage of its 0% 9 month deal for balance transfers, by insisting you make a purchase of at least £100 with your new card within the first 3 months.

That purchase will give you an interest charge of either 15.9% or 17.9% and will not be paid off at all until your cheaper, transferred, debt has been paid off in full!

However, in response, Lloyds TSB said that the full terms of the 0% deal was "very clearly communicated in customer literature." In addition, the bank said that the £100 purchase that you had to make to obtain the 0% deal was itself subject to an initial 3 month interest free period.

All of this is part of a growing trend.

Following the OFT's ruling on credit card default fees, many credit card companies have since raised their basic interest rates, with HBOS complaining that it would lose £60m in income this year due to the OFT's ruling. (Oh dear!)

Other charges were introduced after the OFT ruling as well.

Just last month, Lloyds TSB announced it would charge you £35 a year if you did not use your credit cards enough.

And in January, HSBC said it would charge much higher interest rates if you use your credit cards for gambling.

Meanwhile, 0% deals for balance transfers now almost all come with a transfer fee attached, typically of 3%. The Britannia building society is the only one that does not charge a fee.