Saturday, 11 December 2021 03:58

Issuance of favorable opinion for the regulation of credit card overdraft and membership payments

Written by Evelyn Alas

Deputies of the Financial Commission of the Legislative Assembly, issued a favorable opinion for a series of reforms to the Credit Card System Law in which they seek to prevent harassment and abuse of cardholders by financial institutions.

The FMLN deputy, Anabel Belloso, expressed that they listened to different actors, analyzed the observations made by the Defensoría del Consumidor, and incorporated elements that the Defensoría had pointed out should be included in the Law.

In addition, in this reform, credit card memberships will not be charged to people who have a maximum indebtedness amount of US$2,000.

People who exceed this amount could be charged for the membership, under specifications in which the user has the knowledge of what he/she is acquiring with this type of service.

On the subject of overdrafts, different definitions have been incorporated that were not in the Law, which will be made known in a plenary session next week and it will be added that if the client requests an overdraft, this request must be included in the contract of how it will work.

According to the deputy of Nuevas Ideas, Caleb Navarro, the Defensoría del Consumidor has more than 210 complaints regarding abuses in the area of credit cards.