The increase in consumerism in society, together with the lack of information on financial finished products by the banking entities that arise or practically force them to be purchased, such as deferred credit cards, is causing many families to fall into over-indebtedness. necessary.
In this regard, ASUFIN, the Association of Financial Users, denounces this Friday that entities such as CaixaBank are prioritizing deferred cards as a native alternative to conventional debit cards, which makes it easier for users to incur useful and expensive credit, with APRs that reach figures close to 20%.
This is a banking entity, informs the association, it is a substitute for debit cards without commissions, for the availability of its linked clients, for the MyCard, for the “deferred” modality. A type of card that is on the radar of the future Consumer Credit Directive for imitating the 'buy now, pay later' system – BNPL for its acronym in English – that invites consumer over-indebtedness.
The flow card, as a spending control instrument, is a measure to avoid over-indebtedness by charging purchases over balances. While deferred debit cards allow purchases over the balance, due to the possibility of dividing operations at the time of purchase and afterwards.
Stakeholder raised
ASUFIN has detected several cards on the market, with high interest rates and close to those of revolving credit, which do not fit into the debit category (the expense incurred is automatically charged to the user's account) or conventional credit ( the expense incurred is settled at the end of the month). CaixaBank's Mycard deferred credit rate has a real APR of 19,26%; Among the hybrids, there is the Visa Dual, from KutxaBank, with an APR of 21,31%, and the All in One, from Banco Santander, with an APR of 19,56%. Ibercaja markets a credit that allows settlement in short terms, one week, at 11,41% APR.
Regulatory
ASUFIN has sent the BEUC (the European consumer organization) and Finance Watch a document with proposals addressed to the European Commission to regulate these cards in the future Consumer Credit Directive.
The association informs that the rise of these new products is that the banks do not win with the management of collections and payments, but with the payment stagger, since the seller is paid immediately while the user is charged the amount of the purchase in your account after 48 hours, which is still financing to the seller.
In addition, in the case of the Mycard card, it lies in the fact that it is the substitute for conventional debit, since it has become expensive while deferred debit is free. Specifically, the cost of a debit fee at CaixaBank is 36 euros per year and the debit fee is 48 euros per year.
This violates the fact that the debit card must be a right: no bank can refuse to offer a debit card. For this reason, the association asks that the new European Consumer Credit Directive expressly obliges to offer a conventional debit card, which competes on equal terms with this type of card and that the cost of maintenance does not represent a deterrent factor.
loss of information
ASUFIN also proposes that the EU adequately inform the consumer of the risk they incur by having a card with multiple possibilities to activate onerous forms of credit.
