Charges for Barclaycard and Barclays' Profits

EDM number 1034 in 1989-90, proposed by Alan Meale on 21/05/1990.

That this House notes Barclays' decision to charge ú8 for its Barclaycard; notes that Barclays does not publish separately the profits which it makes from its Visa card although the Monopolies and Mergers Commission Report on Credit Card Services showed such profits rose from ú51.5 million in 1984 to ú91.6 million in 1988; notes that the complicated system of fees imposed on retailers (merchant service charges) for each use of the card rose to over 3 per cent. in 1988 and that this charge is levied on all transactions of people who do not incur interest charges; also notes that the annualised percentage rate of interest will be 27.8 per cent. for those customers liable to pay the ú8 charge; further notes that customers will now pay interest on any outstanding balance from the time of purchase rather than the date of statement as now; further notes the haste of only 8 weeks with which those charges have been introduced, and since these charges are against the public interest, strongly condemns the introduction of the ú8 charge; and calls upon the Monopolies and Mergers Commission to investigate the level of profit of Barclaycard and its monopoly position, as a matter of urgency.

This motion has been ammended, see 607A1.

This motion has been signed by a total of 11 MPs.