Investors have been warned that big-name trackers from Fidelity and Legal & General (L&G) are increasing fees just as interest in the funds is on the rise.
Since the stock market's March lows, 63% of active fund managers in the UK All Companies sector have underperformed, according to Morningstar, the data company - strengthening the case for trackers.
However, Fidelity Moneybuilder UK index - one of the cheapest trackers - has raised its "registrar's fee", so total expenses will rise from 0.27% to 0.3%.
The fund has an annual management charge of 0.1%, which has not changed. But, as with all funds, the annual charge does not include additional costs such as trustee fees, audit charges and registrar's fees. These are contained in the "total expense ratio".
The registrar's fee covers the cost of registering the fund's shares. Fidelity is raising it from 0.1% to 0.13%, pushing the TER up by 10%.
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L&G will also raise the TER on its £4.5 billion UK Index fund to 0.55% from 0.53% next month, also because of higher registrar fees.
Jason Butler at Bloomsbury Financial Planning said: "Index investing is gaining popularity in the UK, so to raise costs now seems counter-intuitive."
Both Fidelity and L&G say they have been forced to pass on increased costs to customers.
Artemis has merged two underperforming venture capital trust funds and lowered the bar for when managers can charge performance fees. Previously, managers earned a performance fee of 20% if the fund grew by more than 8%; now managers will earn a 25% fee based on any growth of the fund.
However, the annual management fee has been reduced from 2% to 1.4%.
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Lee Robertson of Investment Quorum said investors may not have appreciated the full implication of the changes: "The performance fee changes were underplayed, while management fee changes overplayed."
The UK Shareholders' Association is campaigning against changing the fees structure. "The move is hardly likely to favour shareholders," it said.
By contrast, HSBC cut fees last week on its index trackers from about 1% to 0.25%. It is the latest to cut following the arrival in the UK market of US fund manager Vanguard, which offers a FTSE All-Share tracker with a charge as low as 0.15% a year. There is a minimum investment of £100,000 unless you use a fund supermarket such as Alliance Trust, where the minimum investment is just £100.
Vanguard's launch was expected to spark a price war and bring fees down. The average TER of UK tracker funds is about 0.6% and for active funds about 1.6%, according to Lipper, a data provider.
James Norton at Evolve Financial Planning, which offers passive funds, said: "It seems a bizarre time for some management houses to increase fees.
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"It makes funds such as Vanguard look even more attractive. Cost is crucial to a passive strategy."
Butler recommends the Lyxor FTSE 100 tracker, with a TER of 0.3%. Alternatively, he suggests exchange traded funds, which follow the market like a tracker but are shares that can be traded on the exchange.