Goldfish move under attack

Goldfish has joined the growing band of credit card companies seeking to improve profits by altering customer contract terms. This week it emerged that the company, which is owned by Lloyds TSB, has amended its terms and conditions to allow it to reduce the interest-free period from the 21 or 25 days its 1m customers enjoy.

The move has been seen as a potential attack on those customers who always pay their bills before any interest becomes payable.

Several card firms have altered terms to include charges of 2% on balance transfers.

A spokesman for Goldfish said: "We simply took the opportunity to insert the change in our terms and conditions as we were revising them for other reasons. At this stage we're saying we may reduce the interest free period at some point in the future."

Some observers have already called into question whether such a move can be implemented as many card users have variable payment patterns.