Nationwide also won the award for overall satisfaction, completing a highly successful outcome for the provider.

The news for the bigger credit card providers was less rosy, however. The largest seven companies, including high street giants Barclaycard, HSBC and Capital One, accounted for the last seven places overall.

“It is no surprise to see Nationwide doing so well in a survey of this nature,” said uSwitch.com’s head of personal finance, Nick White.

“For some time now [Nationwide] have positioned themselves as a champion of banking consumers’ interests, campaigning on issues ranging from ATM fees to the order of repayments on credit cards, and fees for customers who use their credit card abroad.

“In keeping with the old adage of ‘practising what they preach’, this survey shows that Nationwide are doing a good job of looking after their own customers,” Mr White added, noting that the same could not be said of the seven largest providers.

The survey also revealed that credit card consumers are generally unhappy with the rates and products they are being offered, with only one in five (21.6 per cent) saying they thought their plastic provider offered better than average interest rates.

The fact that the larger companies emerged near the bottom of the pile in the survey was another clear indication that shopping around for the best deals is likely to yield a positive result.

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