sorry that should have read £5,000

I have worked out that on a balance of, say £3,000, this 8% increase in the rate amounts to £33 extra per month. I thought that the whole point about unfair bank charges is that they are not allowed to penalise you for late payments, exceeding overdrafts etc. ... only cover their additional expenses. Surely, a sudden hike in the rate like this is just another way of imposing a penalty charge. I put this to Amex on the phone and they admitted it, adding that this policy had been introduced "recently" ... around about the time they started getting into hot water about late payment charges, perchance? This seems like a nice little loophole for credit card companies!

Thanks bookworm - I'll do that. I am very curious though whether they are within their rights to change their interest rate by as much as they like, whenever they like, for whatever reason they like? Is there any requirement on them to be vaguely reasonable or justify their action?

Hello all, my first post to this forum, so apologies if this has been covered before - I am claiming a very modest £100 from Amex and they sent me a very polite standard letter acknowledging my "complaint". They followed this up the next day with a letter informing me that my "payment history had been reviewed" and as a result, they were increasing my interest rate from 18% APR to 26% APR. As you can see from my small claim, I have only ever been late paying this card 4 times (£25 charge each time), the most recent instance being in April 2005. Clearly, this interest rate change has everything to do with my claim and very little with my payment history ... is there any defence against this bullying tactic? Thanks

Hello all, this is my first post. I started a "seven-horse race" on December 12th, writing to seven different financial institutions on the same day to reclaim my charges. Who will be first to cough up, I wonder? The runners are: Barclays; First Direct; HSBC; American Express; Natwest; HBOS; and Smile. The first ones to go "nasty" are American Express. Having sent me a very polite letter acknowledging my claim, they followed it up a day later with a letter stating that they had "reviewed my account" and were raising my interest rate from 18% APR to 26% APR with immediate effect. Some coincidence! Has anyone come across this tactic and is there any defence against it?