The consumer group compared the cost of borrowing £100 for 28 days and found that charges at some high street banks were as much as £90, up to four times higher than the maximum charges of £22.40 on a payday loan.

In January 2015, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introduced a cap on high cost short-term credit to protect consumers from excessive fees charged by payday loan companies.

Which? is now calling for unarranged overdraft charges to be set at the same level as arranged overdraft charges and for the FCA to review overdraft charges and crackdown on punitive fees.

Alex Neill, director of policy and campaigns, at Which? said: “People with a shortfall in their finances can face much higher charges from some of the big high street banks than they would from payday loan companies. The regulator has shown it’s prepared to take tough action to stamp out unscrupulous practices in the payday loans market, and must now tackle punitive unarranged overdraft charges that cause significant harm to some of the most vulnerable customers.”