Frequently asked questions

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Can compensation be claimed from the credit card company if the purchase made using the credit card does not match or cannot be delivered?

If you have paid for a product by credit card and a problem occurs, you can claim compensation from the credit card company. However, always first try to resolve the matter with the seller.

You can direct your claim to the credit card company, if:

The company fails to deliver the order
The company refuses to provide a refund in cases involving a clear product error
The company does not respond to your complaint or you are unable to contact the company

The credit card company is not obliged to compensate anything more than the amount you paid for the product. If you insist on a price reduction, it must be equal to the corresponding error. If, in the case of remote sales (e-commerce, mail order) the ordered product is never received, you can claim compensation for the entire purchase price from the credit card company.

How is penalty interest calculated?

Penalty interest is determined by the Interest Act. Penalty interest is the reference rate set by the European Central Bank in six-month intervals + 7 percentage points. The Bank of Finland announces the confirmed reference rate, the penalty interest rate and its period of validity at the end of June and December every year.

If the running interest on debt taken out before 1 February 2010 is higher than the penalty interest announced by the Bank of Finland, the penalty interest applied for delayed payment is the loan's original interest rate.

If the debt in question is taken out after 31 January 2010 and more than 180 days have passed from the due date, the maximum rate of penalty interest applicable is the penalty interest announced by the Bank of Finland if the total remaining debt has already fallen due.

Penalty interest may be accrued from the due date onwards, assuming that a due date was set in the first place. If no due date was set, penalty interest generally begins to accrue 30 days after the date on which the creditor demands payment from the debtor.

For debts of private individuals where the debt is not related to the debtor's business activities, the rate of penalty interest may sometimes be negotiated.

Negotiation is possible if delayed payment is due to financial difficulties arising from illness, unemployment or other special circumstances and the cause is primarily not the debtor's fault.

Negotiation is also a possibility when sufficiently weighty justification for it exists. In assessing this, the following circumstances are considered:

the amount of penalty interest in proportion to the debtor's financial standing
whether the debtor has been too casual about borrowing money or repaying the debt.
whether the debtor has justification for not paying back the debt

A store offered me a new credit card that would give me 3 months of interest-free and expense-free time to make payments. I already have a credit card - is there any harm in getting another one?

Carefully consider whether you really need another credit card. Before buying on credit, make sure you are able to pay it back within the interest-free period. If you are unable to do so, you will have to pay interest on the debt along with expenses and other fees.

If the card involves annual fees or account management fees, you will have to pay them even if you don't use the card at all. Also keep in mind that while the credit agreement is signed at the store, the party that actually finances the credit is an external financing company.

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