UK to end all extra credit card charges from January 2018

All extra charges added to payments for goods and services made by card issuers in the UK will be scrapped, ending the colossal costs to UK citizens amounting to millions of pounds each year, the UK government has announced.

Fees for paying with plastic, most commonly a credit card, are routinely levied on everything from low-cost flights and tax bills to cinema tickets and takeaway meals, but the Treasury announced that these would become history from January 2018.

According to the government, the move which follows an EU directive, would mean ''shoppers across the country have that bit of extra cash to spend on the things that matter to them''.

However, according to some commentators, they expected that many banks would simply hike their prices to compensate them for the loss of this money, or change the name of the fee.

The fees had brought in huge additional revenues for government departments and official bodies, which would also be banned from imposing these charges. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency currently added a flat fee of £2.50 to vehicle tax payments by credit card, and its own data had earlier suggested that it collected over £8.5 million a year in these charges.

The worst offenders currently were airlines and food delivery apps, and small businesses, which typically added a fee for cards.

In 2010 alone consumers spent £473 million on such charges, according to estimates by the Treasury.

The move followed a directive from the EU, which banned surcharges on Visa and Mastercard payments.

The government had gone further than the directive, by also banning charges on American Express and Paypal too.

The news was welcomed by campaigners as great news for consumers.

At the moment those booking airline tickets with credit cards paid an extra 3 per cent with Flybe, with a minimum payment of £5, while customers of Ryanair and Norwegian paid 2 per cent.