Credit cards bills to warn against repaying minimum

Credit card statements are to carry warnings that borrowers should not make only the minimum repayment each month.

The warning, to be carried on all statements by the end of the year, will tell customers that this option will increase the size of the final debt.

The move comes ahead of a grilling of bank bosses by MPs on the Treasury select committee next month. They are expected to demand evidence of action to reduce the risk of borrowers getting hopelessly into debt on credit cards.

At least two men have committed suicide after amassing huge credit card debts by only making the minimum monthly payments. Dereck Rawson, 51, hanged himself in his home in Cambridge in May after running up debts of more than ?100,000. Stephen Lewis, 37, from Nottingham, hanged himself last July, leaving debts of ?70,000.