Card rates head over 20 per cent 10 December 2007 5:20PM John Kavanagh Databank, Credit card rates of 20 per cent or more are becoming a commonplace, following moves by a number of issuers over the past months to re-price their card rates.According to InfoChoice data, on November 30 HSBC put the cash advance rate on its classic, gold and platinum Visa cards up to 20.25 per cent. The purchase rate on those cards is 18.75 per cent.On November 20 Westpac put the cash advance rate on its gold Visa, gold MasterCard and 55 day MasterCard up to 20.39 per cent. The purchase rate on those cards is 18.75 per cent.On November 12 BankWest put the cash advance rate on its standard and gold MasterCard up to 20.49 per cent. The purchase rate on those cards is 18.24 per cent.A number of issuers, including big card issuers Commonwealth Bank and ANZ, have plenty of cards whose rates are sitting just below 20 per cent.