Credit cardholders have paid an extra $2.11 billion in interest charges in the past four years because many banks have not passed on interest rate cuts.

Credit card comparison website creditcardfinder.com.au says the average credit card purchase rate has remained at 17 per cent since the Reserve Bank began cutting the cash rate in November 2011.

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If the full 2.25 percentage point cuts were passed on to credit cardholders in the past four years, the average credit card purchase rate would now be 14.25 per cent, the company says.

It also means credit cardholders would have paid $2.11 billion less in interest since November 2011.

Banks have made an estimated $21.03 billion in interest but had they followed the cash rate cuts, they would have earned about $18.92 billion.

Creditcardfinder’s Michelle Hutchison said credit card providers were under greater pressure to maintain their profit margins.

“Credit card providers are clearly doing everything they can to hold onto their profit margins, as they’re under greater pressure with cardholders being more responsible with their spending,” she said.

“For instance, we’ve seen a year-on-year decline in total balances accruing interest every month since August 2012.”

Before the global financial crisis, there was a 19 per cent rise in credit card debts accruing interest year-on-year, she said.

Out of the 356 credit cards monitored by creditcardfinder, only 11 have dropped their purchase rates since January, while another 10 cards have increased their purchase rates.

Quay Credit Union’s Visa Credit Card saw the biggest drop to its purchase rate, by 3.00 percentage points to 7.99 per cent – the lowest ongoing rate on the market.

While the biggest hike was 2.00 percentage points by Coles for its No Annual Fee MasterCard, now 19.99 per cent.