At last the Government has decided to ban credit cards from posting out unsolicited cheques. The credit card companies will also be banned from increasing interest rates without warning and forced to raise the minimum monthly payment.

Last year over 14 million promotional cheques were sent out by credit cards. The technique of sending out these un-requested cheques has proved to be highly profitable for the credit card companies. The interest charged on the money was usually higher than the rates on the card. And then there were usually handling fees of up to 2.5%. Not cheap! As a result many consumers have been led into excessive debt and it was clear that this practice would have to stop at some time.

These reforms were published in a White Paper last week. But that wasn’t all. There is going to be a crackdown on illegal loan sharks and plans for an advocate who will fight on behalf of those consumers who have been cheated by financial businesses. Finally, a specialist enforcement team is to be formed to focus on online fraudsters.

To us this is all good news. Let’s hope that the proposals in the White paper are implemented without further delay.