Money Round-up Video: Credit card rewards cut, boom in cashback mortgage deals and banks to open on May 4

The Independent’s Personal Finance Editor Simon Read talks over the latest Money news

There are now more than three million people in “severe problem debt” (Peter Macdiarmid | Getty Images)

This Week: Credit card rewards being cut; Beware the boom in cashback mortgage deals; Air tax scrapped for kids but you may need to claim a refund; ‘Bank’ holiday could soon be thing of the past.

Credit card rewards being cut: check your correspondence to find out if you’re hit

RBS and Capital One have made announcements, but others may follow. They blame the decision on a new EU rule which caps “interchange fees”. These are fees are paid by retailers to card issuers when a debit or credit card is used as payment. The fee can be as high as 1.5 per cent for some transactions and the European Commission claims the charges are costing retailers across the eurozone €9bn (£6.5bn) a year. The new rules would cap interchange fees at 0.2 per cent for debit card and 0.3 per cent for credit card transactions.

Full story here: Credit card rewards being cut

Beware the boom in cashback mortgage deals

Last week Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks launched a new £1,000 cashback offer. Meanwhile HSBC launched the first five year fixed rate deal under 2 per cent.

But headline cashback deals, or new ‘lowest-ever’ interest rates, invariably come with a hidden cost which can often make them among the poorest deals in the market-place.

Meanwhile the HSBC deal has a whopping £1,499 fee.

Full story here: Beware the boom in cashback mortgages

Air passenger duty for the under-12s is being abolished from next Friday, 1 May. The move will save a family of four with two kids under 12 £26 on a flight to Europe and £142 on a flight to the US, according to the Government.

However, not all airlines are offering automatic refunds, with many asking consumers to apply to get their money back. To add further complexity, parents who booked package deals will have to go back to the tour operator to make a claim, not the airline.

It means anyone who has booked a flight for a child aged 2-11 for after 1 May must check whether they paid the duty. If so, they need to ensure they get the money back from either the airline or the travel agent.

For other money-savings tips, go here: Air tax scrapped for kids

‘Bank’ holiday could soon be thing of the past as more branches open next Monday 4 May

The traditional Bank Holiday could soon be a thing of the past as more of Britain’s high street lenders choose to open their doors on the holiday.

Barclays already opens between 40 to 50 branches across the country on Bank Holidays, depending on demand from the local community and customers, it says. Now from next Monday 5 May, RBS will open the doors at 34 of its busiest RBS and NatWest branches on a trial basis. If it’s a success it promises to open more branches on future Bank Holidays. Bank Holidays became law in 1871 to give workers time off.