Credit Cards - Westpac to increase credit card rates

Rates on saving accounts, credit cards and other products offered by one of the country's leading banks will increase following the latest interest rate rise.

Interest rates attached to Westpac's credit card and saver account products are set to increase, it has been revealed.

As the Reserve Bank of Australia revealed it is to increase the base rate by 0.25 percentage points to 3.5 per cent, the bank states that it too will apply this rise to its saving account and credit card portfolio.

In addition, its standard variable home loan rate will rise from 6.06 per cent to 6.31 per cent as of November 6th.

However, its variable business lending rates will stay the same, something that could interest those firms on the search for the best business accounts.

"Although we continue to manage challenging funding conditions, I am pleased to announce that Westpac has made the decision not to raise our variable business lending rates for our small business customers," Peter Hanlon, group executive of retail and business banking at Westpac, claims.

However, Westpac has not been the only one of Australia's big four banks to increase rates. ANZ Bank announced that following the RBA's rate rise, returns on its progress saver account products is to go up 35 basis points to three per cent.

Posted by Ashley King