Britons have been charged millions of pounds for failing to make credit card repayments, new figures indicate.

Findings from MoneyExpert have shown that over the last six months, consumers have paid out some £50 million in penalties for not paying their bills. With around 694,506 demands for payment either not being made or met late every month, the financial comparison website has claimed that a total of around 4.1 million bills were not paid between January and June. Overall, it was reported that just under one in ten (nine per cent) of all statements have not been serviced.

However, despite moves by the Office of Fair Trading to reduce penalty fees charged by providers to £12, MoneyExpert warned consumers that failing to make repayments could severely impact upon their day-to-day finances. Chief executive Sean Gardner said: “This is the latest evidence of how many people are struggling to cope as interest rates start to rise. Missing a credit card payment comes at a financial cost of £12 a time and if you are already struggling to meet your monthly bills that will just add to the pressure.”

Mr Gardner also claimed that by not making card repayments borrowers could damage their credit history for up to three years, which could consequently affect their ability to take out a cheap loan in the future. “Someone with a poor credit rating will be charged more and may get turned down when they want to borrow. Anyone in trouble needs to take action now because the situation will only get worse if they bury their heads in the sand. They need to get their debts under control and cut their spending,” he added.

MoneyExpert also revealed that consumers between the ages of 25 and 34 are the most likely to miss making a credit card repayment. Some 13 per cent of Britons in this age bracket were reported to have done so at least once over the last six months. Meanwhile, people living in Wales and the Midlands were twice as likely to not meet demands for payments as those is Scotland, with respective differences of 11 and five per cent highlighted.

However, despite the impact a credit history report may have on consumers’ access to getting a competitively priced personal loan, recent research by Garlik has indicated that a third of consumers do know what the purpose of such a file is. Some 33 per cent claimed to be unaware of the fact that the document is used by credit providers when judging what rate of interest will be charged with one in five said to be unaware that such information is held against their name.

Meanwhile, findings by Which? suggested that regularly paying to have their financial history checked by Britain’s three credit reference agencies – Experian, Equifax and Call Credit – could be “money well spent” for those wishing to get a cheap personal loan. The consumer watchdog suggested that by doing so borrowers could be able to challenge any mistake on their file which in turn could reduce the amount of interest attached to their loan.

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