Australians' love affair with credit cards has reached a crisis, with debt hitting record levels, more and more Australians using cards to meet mortgage payments and warnings that card interest rates are about to soar.

Banks have enticed people into signing up for low-interest credit cards, but in the past month several have pushed up card interest rates - some by as much as 1 percentage point - way beyond the official Reserve Bank rise of 0.25 of a percentage point.

St George increased its rate by 0.96 of a percentage point, Westpac by 0.36, NAB by 0.55, BankWest by 0.4, Aussie by 0.5 and NAB by 0.5.

For the first time the average debt on a credit-card account passed $3000.

A near record total of $1.08 billion was borrowed on cash advances in July, with a record $16.4 billion purchases on credit cards - an average $1197 per card.

Credit card consultant Mike Epstein of MWE Consulting said that while last month we spent more, we also paid off more. But balances were still rising as consumers are slugged higher fees.

Despite the increasing level of credit card debt, banks are enticing people to spend even more on credit.

The total amount of available credit pushed out to a record $110 billion in July as banks increased credit card limits - an average $8000 limit per account.

Financial experts are predicting the average credit card interest rate of 16 per cent will increase by two to three percentage points over the next 18 months.

That would push low card rates up to 13 per cent and top rates to 22 per cent.

"People are being sucked in by low-interest credit cards and then being squeezed dry by the banks," said Credit Line financial counsellor Wendy Luckett.

"I have been doing this for 17 years and it is the worst I have ever seen. I am seeing people who are contemplating suicide, marriages are breaking up under the strain and the human cost is enormous," Ms Luckett said.

"It is not just poorer people getting too far in debt. I am seeing professional people with big homes, private schools and $40,000 credit limits where something has gone wrong and they can't meet repayments."