BANKS and building societies may have been quick to pass on the fall in the Bank of England’s base rate to savers, but credit card customers have not been so lucky.

As research from financial services website Moneyfacts.co.uk shows, the average credit card purchase rate has actually risen in the past year and is now sitting almost one percentage point higher than it was in September 2015, at 22.8 per cent versus 21.5 per cent.

While low rates for those with good credit histories do exist – Tesco Bank’s Low APR Credit Card is charging just 5.9 per cent while the AA, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Lloyds all have cards with APRs of 6.4 per cent – Rachel Springall at Moneyfacts said that in general “credit card interest rates are not on a downward trajectory”.

The reason for this, she said, is that “only a small portion of lenders link card interest to the base rate”, meaning the Bank of England’s recent cut from 0.5 per cent to a historic low of 0.25 per cent is having little effect in the credit card market.

“Borrowers using plastic are unlikely to be feeling the effects of a 0.25 [percentage point] cut because the interest charged on credit cards tends to be linked to the risk borrowers represent instead,” she added.

Despite this, Kevin Mountford, banking expert at MoneySuperMarket, noted that customers who do not pay off their credit card balances on a regular basis could slash their interest bills by transferring their balance to another provider, many of which also offer other incentives.

“The balance transfer card market has been extremely competitive recently and shows no signs of letting up as providers continue to cut fees and increase the duration of the fee-free period,” he said.

“Some of the best-ever offers are available at the moment and consumers should make the most of these now in case the competition doesn’t last much longer.”

Forty-one months is the longest period customers can hope to get a zero-rate balance transfer deal for, with MBNA, Halifax and Virgin Money all currently offering that deal.

However, as the products carry respective switching fees of 3.49 per cent, 3.5 per cent and 4 per cent, customers who are likely to pay their balance off in a shorter time period could get a better deal elsewhere.

The Bank of Scotland Platinum 32 Month Balance Transfer credit card, for example, charges a switching fee of just 0.8 per cent while the Lloyds Bank Platinum 20 Month Balance Transfer credit card does not charge a transfer fee at all.

While such deals could help ease the burden of paying interest on large credit card balances, for those looking to use their credit account as an alternative to cash, rewards and cashback cards could be the best option.

Among those to have launched recently are the Asda Cashback Plus card and the intu credit card.

The former repays one per cent of everything spent at the supermarket as well as 0.5 per cent on all other purchases, meaning a customer who spends £100 on groceries and £25 on fuel at Asda each week in addition to £100 on purchases elsewhere would receive £91 back each year.

The card from shopping mall operator intu, which manages Glasgow’s Braehead shopping centre, offers a broader range of benefits including discounts at restaurants, free membership of dining club the Gourmet Society and up to £60 of gift cards in the first year depending on how much is spent on the card.

Andrew Hagger, founder of the Moneycomms website, said the intu card in particular is “an excellent deal, particularly in year one”.

However, he warned that anyone looking to take advantage of such offers should only do so if they are able to clear their balance each month.

“Don’t sign up for any rewards or cashback-based credit card if you’re not confident that you’ll clear your credit card statement balance in full every month otherwise your interest charges will wipe out any benefit earned,” he said.

The advice is sage, as the terms of the British Airways American Express Premium Plus credit card make clear.

The benefits for anyone taking out the card include receiving 25,000 Avios points – enough to book a return flight from Glasgow to Cairo - if they spend £3,000 in their first three months plus a free companion voucher if they spend £10,000 within an anniversary year.

Those benefits are reduced somewhat by the fact the card bears an annual fee of £195 but it is in its punitive interest rate that the card could really catch customers out, with anyone not paying their balance off in full each month facing a representative APR of 76 per cent.

A £10,000 balance paid off at that rate over three years would turn into a total debt of £20,792, meaning the companion flight would have to be first class from London to Sydney over the busy Christmas period to make the rewards seem anywhere close to worthwhile.