Irish Credit Card Gov. Levy
Extra Expense for credit card holders - Typical Irish!
The Government levy of €40 as credit card duty has not seen many supporters since its inception in 2002, especially when it is applied in retrospect. This stamp duty of €40 has to be paid by each and every citizen holding a credit card. And why? What is this stamp duty for?
The extra charge of €40 puzzled some credit card holders who had never paid this stamp duty before, since the credit card providers will pass on this €40 to the government and treat it as a part of your borrowing whereupon it will attract a prohibitive interest rate that the normal credit card levies. The interest levies on credit card debt hover around 18-19% in Ireland. What you ask? Not your credit card? Look at the fine print.
Another complication arising out of this stamp duty levy is that if a credit card holder wants to move his or her card to a more “competent” provider, they have to pay €40 to the old credit card provider and again to the new one. The credit card providers are obliged to collect the levies form the customers even if the customer is temporary.
This defies all logical assumption of the government’s claims of concern about eroding base of competition, and is proving to be a disaster for all marketing efforts of credit card companies which operate in a highly competitive market. In Ireland we are effectively 6 years behind in the credit card market than our U.S and European counterparts.
Conversely, the Department of Finance refused to comment on the issue of continuity of this matter. The spokesman only said that the budget day will say it all. That was in 2003.