Does your credit card provider follow the code?

If there are grounds for dispute, the customer is not protected by an ombudsman who can give a fully independent judgement on who is right and wrong.

"The Banking Code gives bank customers and credit card holders real protection," explains Seymour Fortescue, chief executive of the Banking Code Standards Board.

"I would like to say to anyone who receives a mailing from Capital One, The Associates, MBNA, which don't subscribe to our code at the moment to think very carefully before signing up for one of their cards.

"You don't get the protection which you would with most other card issuers," Mr Fortescue says.

However, MBNA and The Associates have decided to abide by a lesser known code run by the Finance and Leasing Association.

This set of regulations offers some independent arbitration but does not go as far in protecting people as the Banking Code.

Capital One has not signed up to either code, but states that customers can be assured that Capital One complies to the 'spirit' of the Banking Code.

Mr Fortescue does not think that is good enough.

"We have no sanctions over them. As far as I can see Capital One has no redress scheme at all, no arbitration scheme and there is no Ombudsman arrangement.

"So I think their customers are in a very weak position."

The Banking Code

The Banking Code Standards Board can Monitor that banks & building societies are keeping to code Discipline organisations that fail to comply - may name and shame Tell customers which organisations are members Provide regular reviews of the code The board cannot Deal with claims for compensation for bad treatment Intervene in disputes Deal with questions on mortgages Deal with business customers

One person who agrees with him is Moneybox listener Martin Stewart from Worcestershire.

He got into dispute with Capital One over penalty charges for late payment on his credit card.

"When I did write to the complaints manager to advise me on who was their regulator, she said the Office of Fair Trading.

"And when I rang OFT they did not seem to think that this was a complaint that they could deal with."

"In the end I sent the card back with a cheque and effectively closed the account."

Capital One say it is unfair to suggest its customers are in anyway less looked after.

However, it confirmed it does not have an independent arbitration system for complaints and customers cannot take disputes to an ombudsman.

In response, Capital One drew attention to a few others who have not signed to the Banking Code, most significantly the government's National Savings, which has 30 million customers.

National Savings will soon be producing its own code, but at present say its customers already have more rights than those of the American banks.

"We have a full complaints procedure which is backed by a parliamentary ombudsman and the adjudicator for National Savings," explained spokesman Steve Downey.

"We feel we need to have a customer code that reflects the industry practice.

"However, there are issues around the banking code being designed by banks and building societies for that industry."

"Therefore, we are saying, our customer code is the approach we will take which will be referred to the Banking Code Standards Board as well, as part of the process."