The BBC has learned that Barclaycard has instituted a policy of identifying customers who regularly pay off their credit card in full, and then penalising them by bringing forward the date payment has to be made by.

This reduces the period of interest free credit, but has also meant that some customers have been hit with late payment charges after paying their bill on the same date in the month they've always paid it.

If this wasn't astonishing enough, Barclaycard don't seem to be at all ashamed of the practice. their spokesman told the BBC that these moves were being taken because Barclaycard is "having to face up to the fact that clearly we are not making as much money out of customers that pay their bill in full as we are out of those that borrow. Once we recognise that someone is regularly paying their bill in full, we will shorten the time that they have got to pay a little".

In one case they moved a customer's payment date from the 9th January to the 3rd January - the first day back at work after the holiday season!

Read the full story on the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/4681228.stm

When the big companies start behaving like this, then it highlights that there is a real opportunity for entrepreneurs to enter the market and start delivering real service, and caring about their customers.

However, this is a difficult industry to enter because of the regulation and capitalisation required.
Even Virgin couldn't launch a completely independent credit card, their card is managed by an established card provider, who just puts the Virgin brand on it.

But could this be the perfect opportunity for Paypal (part of the Ebay group)? I wonder who else could make this happen....?