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Australians spent $17.77 billion on credit cards and debit cards in May, an increase of 2.3 per cent on the previous month, new data from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has shown.

In its monthly report, the bank announced that consumer credit card spending rose 2.5 per cent during the period, but repayments were down for the second month in a row.

Figures show credit card repayments dropped 0.9 per cent during the month to stand at a total of $18 billion.

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Telstra customers will soon be stung by additional credit card processing fees as a result of a raft of new charges that target those paying their bills in person.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Telstra consumer executive director Jenny Young said that the new charges will help the company recoup the “hundreds of millions of dollars” it spends every year on billing.

“We’re introducing or changing our fees for some payment options which incur higher administration costs. H

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A new initiative from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) which lets people pay off their outstanding tax obligations via credit card has come under fire from consumer groups.

The new trial scheme, which will be evaluated next month after being introduced earlier this year, has been criticised by Choice and other watchdogs on the grounds that the ATO should not be encouraging people to add to their debt burden.

Speaking to the Courier Mail, Carmel Franklin, a spokesperson for Care Financial Counselling Services, said that people are already being put under pressure and need “all the help they can get” in getting their debts in order.

“That means suspending interest payments, not directing them to credit cards that charge 20 per cent a year,” she exclaimed.

Credit card companies themselves have also been on the firing line in recent months because of their failure to cut headline interest rates in line with the record reductions to the Reserve Bank’s cash rate.

A taxi driver facing a slew of offences including credit card fraud has had his application for the redemption of his licence rejected.

In addition to allegedly using a credit and debit card copier to defraud his unwitting passengers, Sydney taxi driver Wail Al-Najjar also faces conviction for assaulting a member of airport security staff for “being rude”.

He is also accused of defrauding the chairman of the Rice Marketing Board using his credit card machine.

The Courier Mail reports that he was nabbed by police after a string of complaints from his customers.

Robin Handley, deputy president of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (ADT), said in his findings, commented: “The police [allegedly] found a machine in his taxi for copying credit cards.

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Consumers should be wary of offers to consolidate credit card debts and reduce payable interest rates as they can often just add to the debt burden, it has been claimed.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that debt consolidation deals should be treated with caution, as while monthly payments may be reduced, the length of repayment can be extended dramatically and the overall outstanding debt can balloon rapidly.

“What the people advertising such services will not tell you is that when you refinance or consolidate debts, you usually put debt on top of debt, adding interest and extending the loan term,” the paper warns.

A smarter option might be to request a hardship variation, which allows people leeway to either temporarily reduce or suspend debt repayments until their financial situation improves.

Hardship variations are available to anyone who suffers an unexpected change in circumstances or is otherwise reasonably unable to make repayments.