Tuesday, January 09, 2007

HSBC has joined the ranks of banks charging customers higher rates for
gambling transactions processed on its credit cards. The bank will charge
customers the cash advance rate of interest (up to 27.8 per cent) instead of
the normal purchase rate (up to 22.9 per cent). A spokeswoman told BBC News:
"This is one of a number of changes we have made to our credit card offering
recently to bring us in line with the competition." While MBNA and Natwest
now charge customers using their credit cards to make gambling transactions
at higher cash advance rates, Barclaycard and Lloyds continue to charge at
lower rates. Credit card use is illegal for both casino and bookmaker
gambling. But HSBC denies that the move is designed to punish online
gamblers for stacking up debts and defaulting on credit card payments: "We
have not seen that as part of our customers' behaviour," insisted its
spokeswoman. Spending on online gambling accounted for only 0.8 per cent of
all credit card spending in the year to June 2006, according to (Apacs).