The UK Cards Association Credit Card Best practice guidelines

The UK Cards Association maintain and develop a variety of best practice guidelines. These guidelines have been produced to establish a standard for the UK card payments industry to aim for, and provide examples of possible implementation strategies that meet requirements. They also act to safeguard the interests of consumers and ensure that there is greater transparency and consistency across the industry.

The UK Cards Association will continue to revise and enhance the materials as required.

Credit card Summary Box

Cardholder Statement Summary Box (equivalent to RBA's Key Facts Sheet but more informative)

Credit card cheques and Summary Box

Credit card limit increases

Debt advice health warning

Direct Sales of Credit Cards

Minimum repayment health warning

Statement of principles relating to credit card re-pricing (January 2011)

Best practice guidelines

National Consumer Credit Protection Bill 2009

"Your email also raises a number of concerns about how credit card accounts are operated. The Payments System Board of the Reserve Bank has no regulatory power over these aspects of credit cards. You may, however, be interested in recent amendments made to the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. These amendments include changes to:

force credit card lenders to allocate repayments to higher interest debts first;

stop lenders from distributing pre-approved offers for increased credit;

prevent lenders charging fees to consumers who go over their credit limit unless they have asked for this service;

make it mandatory for credit-card applications to include a clear summary of key account features; and

require lenders to clearly warn consumers on their monthly credit card statement of the consequences of only making minimum repayments.

See: National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Home Loans and Credit Cards) Act 2011