CANBERRA: Banks have reaped an extra $2.1 billion in the past four years by not passing on interest rate cuts to credit card customers. Comparison website creditcardfinder.com.au says the average credit card purchase rate has remained stuck at 17 per cent since the Reserve Bank began cutting its cash rate in November 2011.
If the full 2.25 percentage points worth of RBA cuts had been passed on to credit card holders, they would have paid $2.1 billion less in interest as the average card rate would have dropped to 14.25 per cent. Credit card finder’s Michelle Hutchison said banks also would have seen the interest they earned from credit card customers fall to $18.9 billion from $21 billion.
“Credit card providers are clearly doing everything they can to hold onto their profit margins, as they’re under greater pressure with cardholders being more responsible with their spending,” she said.”For instance, we’ve seen a year-on-year decline in total balances accruing interest every month since August 2012.”
Australian Bankers Association spokeswoman Diane Tate said the RBA’s cash rate had only a marginal impact on credit card interest rates. She said customers also had access to a variety of credit card deals, including `no frills’ deals for people wanting lower interest rates.
“The average amount accruing interest per credit card in Australia has been falling consistently for the past three years, indicating that Australians are taking care not to pay as much interest,” she said.
“Since late 2014, the amount accruing interest per card has fallen back to levels not seen since the beginning of 2007.” Out of the 356 credit cards monitored by creditcardfinder, only 11 have dropped their purchase rates since January, while another 10 increased theirs.
Quay Credit Union’s Visa Credit Card saw the biggest drop to its purchase rate, by three percentage points to 7.99 per cent – the lowest ongoing rate on the market. The biggest hike was two percentage points by Coles for its No Annual Fee MasterCard, now 19.99 per cent.
