Big Debt Switch ... “We are going to war on credit card bills but we need to take an army with us,” says Joel Gibson, campaigns director at One Big Switch. Source: Supplied

HOUSEHOLDS have begun to lose their battle with credit-card bills — a historic shift that has triggered a new campaign to lower the price of using plastic.

The only recorded long-run fall in the collective credit-card balance accruing interest has recently stalled, despite repayments exceeding spending by $5 billion so far this year.

Lenders have regained the upper hand by keeping card interest rates super-high in resistance to 10 consecutive cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Doing so has brought them under federal parliamentary investigation.

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And from today additional pressure will be exerted via the Big Debt Switch, which aims to amass the buying might of at least 25,000 consumers to create potentially better deals and intensify flagging competition.

“We are going to war on credit card bills but we need to take an army with us,” said Joel Gibson, campaigns director at One Big Switch, the consumer network that has delivered previously unseen levels of discounting on electricity, health insurance and other budget-busters.

Interest rates on standard credit cards are still at about the same level as they were in 2008. Source: ThinkStock

The average credit-card interest bill is $600 a year. However, a Senate inquiry into plastic last week heard that many less wealthy households pay far more, subsidising richer cardholders who have the spare cash to clear their balances each month.

Mr Gibson said: “We want to see what people power can do to slash some credit card interest bills and rescue others who are in dire straits.”

That may include connecting campaign supporters with not-for-profit financial counselling, Mr Gibson said.

More broadly, the campaign, which is supported by News Corp Australia, will seek to raise awareness about the pitfalls of credit cards — and how to avoid them.

RBA Assistant Governor Malcolm Edey told the Senate inquiry card interest rates were inexplicably high.

Interest rates on standard credit cards are still at about the same level as they were when variable home-loan rates were nudging 10 per cent in 2008.

Dr Edey said new regulatory weaponry may be required to improve consumer protection and bring more transparency to the market.

He also urged cardholders unhappy with the rates they were paying to “shop around”.

Senate inquiry chairman, Labor’s Sam Dastyari, said he hoped it would be possible to make it easier for customers to go from one lender to another.

And he backed the Big Debt Switch.

“It is exactly the type of shake-up of the credit-card market the evidence to our inquiry has shown is needed,” Senator Dastyari said.

According to RBA data, credit-card balances attracting interest fell from $37 billion to $33 billion between April 2012 and the end of 2014. As of June, the total was still $33 billion. Australians have repaid $151 billion on their credit cards in 2015, having spent $146 billion.

To join the Big Debt Switch go to the moneysaverHQ section of this website.

* There is no obligation to take up any offer. News Corp Australia and One Big Switch will earn a commission from any accepted deals. News Corp Australia is a shareholder of One Big Switch.