Researchers at MoneySupermarket.com have unearthed 110 charges and fees on basic financial transactions that customers may be liable for.

In the UK, penalties hidden in the small print can add up to more than £8 billion ($16 bn) in revenues for finance companies, credit cards and banks. And a similar situation may also exist in the USA.

The website looked at five common financial products : current accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards and savings.

Mortgages, with arrangement, booking and valuation fees accounted for 46 of the total. These have risen to around £1000 ($2000) in the past year.

Normal bank accounts can levy 32 penalty charges, while credit cards account for 16 fees. Loans attract up to 11 charges.

Stuart Glendinning, Managing Director of the website, said : “It is unbelievable that five financial products can be the root of so much penalty pain.”

Nick Gardner, a director at Chase de Vere, the mortgage advisers, said the range of fees embedded in home loans is “cunning and completely unacceptable. The headline rates may be coming down, but the number and scale of fees have risen enormously.”

Maybe it’s time to get that old magnifying glass down from the attic.

If you have a poor credit record, low earnings or have recently moved to another country, you may be classed as “sub-prime” by lenders if you apply for a loan or a mortgage.

There’s no escaping this Mark of Cain even if the only flaw in your situation is that you have recently taken a new job or become self-employed.

Banks and mutual lenders treat sub-primes in a straightforward fashion — with high interest rates. Indeed, the unfortunate sub-prime will often have to approach a specialist lender to negotiate their loan.

The recent falls in stock markets around the world were partly caused by a rise in sub-prime defaults in the U.S. following 17 rate hikes in two years. Many had taken out second mortgages to pay off other debts and were unable to meet repayments.

However, these cases should be set in perspective against a background of very low levels of mortage default in both the U.S and the UK.

If you think you may be assessed as sub-prime, try going to standard lenders first and explaining any mitigating factors. For example, that new job may represent a substantial increase in salary.

Should you be knocked back by the big boys despite the good news, the bad news is that you may have to bite the bullet and pay more than the average to get a mortgage.

Once the conditions that make you sub-prime have been relieved, however, you should remortgage at normal rates as quickly as you can.