3 agosto, 2022
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It is expected that they will continue to rise, despite the fact that the Supreme Court considers them «usurers» above 20%.
Sanahuja Miranda in El Confidencial Digital: The interest on revolving cards already triples that of personal loans.
Revolving cards have an interest of 18%, even reaching 28% in some cases. A personal loan is around 7% APR, down to 3.65% in certain entities, such as Estel Romero, a lawyer specializing in banking law. Although both are financial products with a similar objective, the interest on revolving cards can triple that of a personal loan.
As Romero says, revolving cards can be replaced by a personal loan and the money would be much cheaper. The difference is that, with a loan, the money granted is entered into our account at once and they only give us the amount we have requested, for example, 1,000 euros. On the other hand, with the revolving card, although a priori we hire a credit of 1,000 euros, if we later return 500 euros and spend them again, we will owe 1,500 euros and we will pay interest for that amount.
As Estel Romero explains, due to the difficult economic situation that is currently being experienced, revolving cards have become a more demanded product.
«Misinformation and the lack of financial education of the population promote these situations,» says the lawyer. Revolving cards are sold in airports, shopping malls, supermarkets… that is, places where people are thinking about other things and do not concentrate on reading the contract they sign.
One of the most recent convictions on this subject is the one imposed by the Catalan Consumer Agency, which has sanctioned with a fine 977,813 euros to 14 entities that market revolving cards. One of them had an APR that reached 28.73% well above the average of 20%.
1 in 6 complaints made to the OCU are related to the banking sector. Among them, those that have to do with revolving cards stand out. The Bank of Spain recognizes revolving as «a common source of complaints.»
