No non-transactional fees on credit cards before activation: BB

The Bangladesh Bank has instructed banks not to charge credit cardholders any kind of non-transactional fee before they activate their cards. 

Non-transactional fees can be charged only after a customer activates a credit card, said the central bank in a directive issued for the banks on Tuesday.

If an active credit card does not have any liability related to transactions made by the customer, no penalty other than a non-transactional fee can be imposed, said the central bank.

Besides, the banks have to remove credit card holders, who did not make any transaction but were classified as defaulters due to unpaid non-transactional fees, from the list of defaulters.

However, if a customer's credit card transaction liabilities are not cleared in time, he can be classified as a loan defaulter as per relevant policies. 

"Guidelines already exist for credit card withdrawals and recovery of late fees. But, recently it has been noticed that the banks are charging various non-transactional fees [annual fee, CIB fee, SMS fee] before cardholders activate the cards and they are being shown as defaulters if they do not pay it," said the central bank in the directive. 

"This creates confusion and causes various problems for the customers," it added.