Nationwide Building Society has urged the government to follow US plans to enforce positive order of credit card payments, which would help card owners save hundreds every year.

 

American credit card suppliers will soon be forced to apply positive order to payments - meaning that customers will pay off higher interest rate balances first, leaving the cheaper rate debts until later, rather than the other way around.

 

Customer could save £213 in the first year through payment plans like this, according to Nationwide, but the majority of credit card companies in the UK currently use adverse payment methods.

 

Jeremy Wood, Nationwide's consumer finance director, said: We believe the UK should follow the U.S. and make card providers allocate payments in a positive way. Consumers can ill-afford to lose this much money, especially in the current financial climate.

 

He added that credit card owners could benefit from switching providers .

 

Abbey Credit Cards recently revealed that UK customers could also be saving money by taking advantage of zero per cent cards, which could save a further £443 a year.