Oh the irony! Interest rates on credit cards are at their highest level for 12 years, and now stands at 18.8%. Yet, the Bank of England’s Bank rate has never been so low, standing at 0.5% since March 2009. It seems that the card providers have pushed up rates owing to worries that borrowers are more likely to default. Credit card companies have had to wrote off massive amounts as borrowers struggle to pay them off. The Bank of England says that the banks’ write-offs doubled to £1.6bn. It’s a vicious circle as banks increase their rates which put borrowers further in to debt which then mean more write-offs and so it goes on.