Repayments allocated to the cheapest debt (lowest interest rate) first » More details

General industry practice is that when a consumer makes a payment against their credit or store card debt it is allocated to the cheapest debt first. However, many consumers do not understand that this is common practice, and may therefore not realise that balances accruing interest at a high rate will be paid off last. Read Chapter 2 for detailed information and to comment

Minimum payments set at low levels (often 2-3% of the debt), taking years to pay off » More details

Minimum payments are currently set at a level which just covers that month's interest charges but does not repay any of the capital borrowed. This means that some consumers will be repaying their debts over decades and paying significant interest over the life of the debt. Read Chapter 3 for detailed information and to comment

Credit and store card lenders increasing consumers' credit limit without their consent » More details

It is common practice for credit and store card lenders to increase consumers' credit limits without their active consent. The lack of consumer information and control over the timing and scale of limit increases, alongside low financial capability and in some cases the difficulty of rejecting an increase, undermines consumers' control over their borrowing. Read Chapter 4 for detailed information and to comment

Lenders changing a consumers' interest rate without properly explaining why » More details

Some lenders claim to be changing a consumer's interest rate because they pose a higher risk but often there is not any obvious change in the consumer's circumstances and the reason for the increase is not properly explained. For consumers who have used their cards responsibly and never missed a payment over the years, there is understandable anger that they feel they may be paying the price for excessive risk-taking by financial institutions. Read Chapter 5 for detailed information and to comment

Credit and store cards can be overly complex and difficult to compare in the market » More details

The complexity of credit and store cards can lead consumers to make poor choices and to incur greater debts and charges; it also has a detrimental impact on levels of switching in the market. Read Chapter 6 for detailed information and to comment