A recent report has suggested that banks in the UK are slyly trying to make more money from customers by increasing their personal loan rates, which some campaigners have described as being underhand.
Over the past six weeks or so it is claimed that some lenders have increased the average rate of interest charged on their personal loans by 1 percent, despite the fact that the base interest rate is still at its lowest level ever at just 0.5 percent.
One price comparison website claims that the average personal loan rate now stands at 9.07 percent, which is an increase from 8.74 percent a year ago, when the base interest rate was ten times higher than it is now.
One industry official said: ‘Hiking loan rates in the current climate is just making an already difficult situation practically impossible for consumers. Much as we understand that the banks are struggling, these are big hikes to swallow. With all eyes on mortgages and savings, it seems loan providers are slipping under the radar slightly.’
Around one and a half million consumers are said to have opted for a personal loan last year to consolidate other debts in a bid to reduce monthly outgoing. However, with loan rates rising like this many may find that this is no longer an affordable or viable option, leaving them to look at other solutions to reduce their debt repayments.
One consumer stated: “I recently looked at taking out a personal loan, and was shocked at the interest rates being charged. With the base rate so low I thought that personal loan interest rates would have also fallen, but this simply isn’t the case – quite the contrary in fact, with most of them having increased.”
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