Enrile calls for stop to credit abuses vs card holders

“I call on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Amado Tetangco, to make consumer protection and financial literacy a cornerstone of his second term in office,” said Rep. Jack Enrile, 1st District, Cagayan, as his appeal to the Central Bank during his privilege speech yesterday.

Stressing that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) failed Pinoy consumers, the young Enrile cited the “complaints made by credit card users regarding fraudulent transactions, exorbitant interest rates on outstanding balances, and late payment penalties charged to card holders even if the billing statements were delivered late if at all by credit card companies.” Enrile likewise re-echoed the pleas of merchants, entrepreneurs and small business regarding charge backs. “A typical charge back situation occurs when a card holder refutes a transaction recorded in the statement of account, informs the credit card company that said purchase was not authorized and subsequently requests that the transaction be “charged back” to the merchant,” added Enrile.

“If a merchant has substantial deposit in the bank under a merchant agreement, that is not a problem but if the merchant is relatively a smaller establishment, a significant charge back may serve to clean out their bank account and compromise the clearing of their checks earlier issued to suppliers and business partners,” Enrile explained.

Enrile wants a clearly defined formula in computing interests rates on credit. “It cannot be that this is left to the banks to determine, change, amend, etc.”

The young Enrile wants to place a cap on the interest rates charged on deferred payments made on credit card purchases to one percent per month, strengthen the provisions of the electronic commerce act to protect merchants against arbitrary charge backs, and to promote accountability, responsibility and disclosure in the credit card industry.

There are some 15 major credit card companies that process over P100-billion worth of credit card transactions on an annual basis. These companies facilitate the transactions made by over 4 million credit card holders and 30,000 or more retail and service establishments nationwide.