Spain bans credit and debit card charges for consumers as of 1st September

Ahead of EU plans, the Spanish government has decided to cap these fees as follows: 

For debit cards: a maximum commission of 0.2% of the purchase price, and never more than 7 euro cents. If the purchase price is lower than 20 euros, the maximum cap is set at 0.1%. 

For credit cards: a maximum commission of 0.3%. If the purchase price is lower than 20 euros, the maximum cap is set at 0.2%.

As argued by some of the big credit card issuers, there have been fears that banks will raise bank card fees for consumers. Nevertheless, we here at OCU believe that as long as consumers will be free to chose and switch banks easily, there will always be room for competition, also on this market. At present, there are many banks which offer cards for free, as shown in OCU's credit card comparison tool.

This is also the position defended by BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, which OCU has campaigned along with at European level to put an end to these fees.

(Contenido en español aquí).