Card issuers’ lending practices will be debated by MPs in the House of Commons next Thursday, amid fears that hidden fees and high interest charges are exacerbating a crisis in credit card borrowing.

Research published yesterday by Datamonitor found that average credit card debt had increased from £719 in 1999 to £1,140 in 2003. The findings are expected to form part of the debate over a report of the Commons Treasury Select Committee on transparency of credit card charges.

Datamonitor analysts found that the value of card balances had risen from £33.1 billion in 1999 to £53.5 billion at the end of last year.

Multiple card holding was also on the rise, with analysts forecasting that there will be almost two credit cards for every adult in the UK by 2008, taking the number of cards in circulation up to 91 million.

MPs said that the findings confirmed fears that borrowers were increasingly juggling cards and paying just the minimum amount, leaving them acutely vulnerable to rising interest rates.

Kieran Hines, a senior analyst at Datamonitor, said: “In a roundabout way, rising base rates will lead to people taking on more cards. Homeowners, struggling with more costly variable-rate mortgages, are likely to seek out interest-free card offers to help manage the rising debt burden and this could store up debt problems.”

John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, in whose constituency a father of two committed suicide after running up £70,000 of debt on 19 credit accounts, said the Datamonitor research proved that card issuers were not lending responsibly. He will use next week’s debate to call for more stringent lending practices.

Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat member of the Treasury Select Committee who will speak at next week’s debate, said that the research proved the need for government intervention.

He highlighted figures predicting an exponential rise in card transactions to £157 billion by 2008.

Mr Lamb said: “There needs to be a recognition by the Government that the problem of consumer debt, fuelled by rising house prices, needs to be addressed.”

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