One of the UK's leading banks is planning to raise its fees for all gambling-related transactions that are processed on its credit cards.
Effective February 1, 2007, customers of HSBC will be charged a higher fee for all telephone and internet gambling, which will bring it to the fee level of cash-advance payments.
The fee will rise from between 15.9 percent and 22.9 percent interest to between 21.9 percent and 27.8 percent. However, the one-off fee, which is in place when involving purchase of foreign currency and other transactions, will not be charged.
Currently, the UK credit card industry does not have a standard policy regarding gambling fees. Some banks charge a low level purchase rate and some banks charge at the cash advance rate.
The online payment service Paypal, which is popular among online gamblers, will continue to be charged as a retail purchase and therefore would still have a lower rate of interest.
According to the Association of Payment Clearing Services, online gambling via credit cards done by UK players in the year up to June 2006, accounted for only 0.8 percent of all credit card spending.
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