Barclaycard’s ten million customers face the prospect of an annual or monthly fee if they do not use their card enough, it emerged yesterday.

The UK’s largest credit card provider admitted that it is considering introducing fees after an internal review of its charging strategy was leaked. In a statement, the company said: “We are considering a fee for a minority of customers that simply do not use their card. Details aren’t yet final but we expect the amount to be between £10 and £20 – less than £2 per month.”

The credit card firm, which has 9.8 million customers in the UK and accounts for 15 per cent of the credit card market, said that it had introduced better deals to encourage people to use their cards more often but a significant minority of accounts, estimated at one million, remained inactive.

The company says the cost of maintaining unused accounts is borne by regular borrowers. The fees could be in place by September and are expected to raise about £20 million a year. Barclaycard said it would write to low-use customers before the charge is introduced warning them that they must use their card more, face a fee or close their account. “We think this is a fair approach and gives customers a choice,” a spokesman for the company said.

Richard Mason of Money-superket.com, a price comparison website, said: “Barclaycard wants to introduce these fees so that customers who do not use their cards close their accounts. Nowadays people regularly get new credit cards but often they fail to close old accounts. It costs a lot of money for companies like Barclaycard to issue cards, maintain accounts and send out statements to these people.”

Last year Barclaycard’s profits fell 40 per cent to £382 million after it was hit by bad debts and a stagnant market for unsecured borrowing. The credit card industry has also been hit by regulatory changes after the Office of Fair Trading ruled last year that late-payment fees must be capped at £12. Lenders have been looking for ways of recouping the lost revenue.

Barclaycard is not the first company to introduce fees on inactive accounts but it is the largest. Earlier this year Lloyds TSB introduced a £35 fee on 50,000 inactive accounts, while MBNA has warned customers with positive balances that they will be charged a £10 penalty. Industry experts said Barclaycard’s move would prompt other companies to follow suit.

Nick White, director of financial services at uSwitch.com, a price-comparison website, said: “Implementing a fee for inactive credit card customers is not the key issue here; the problem is the level of transparency about the criteria used to select the customers who will be charged.

“Without this, customers do not know how to manage their credit card account to ensure they do not fall into this category in the future.”

He said: “My advice to anyone who has a Barclaycard but does not use it very often is to . . . find out what they will offer you. You may be given a better rate or a zero per cent balance transfer if you start using the card again.”

— Barclays said it is making “excellent progress” on its €64 billion bid for ABN Amro. It expects to send all key filings to regulators by the end of May. Consent is needed from 55 regulators. Barclays, which today issues first-quarter results, had to give a bid update under Dutch rules. Fortis, in the rival Royal Bank of Scotland bid team, said its update will be on Sunday

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive