There are 12 financial entities in the country that offer credit cards that do not charge the annual membership commission to date, according to information from the respective websites of the entities, as well as from their telephone exchanges.
What is the annual membership? It is a commission charged by banks for the service of managing the benefits that are provided according to the type of card, such as, for example, the administration of reward programs (points or miles).
Commissions are charges for additional and/or complementary services to the operations contracted with users, provided by financial entities.
Finance system
There are 16 banking companies in the financial system: Banco BBVA, Banco de Comercio, Banco de Credito del Peru (BCP), Banco Pichincha, BanBif, Scotiabank, Citibank, Interbank, Mibanco and Banco GNB.
Banco Falabella, Banco Santander, Banco Ripley, Banco Alfin, Banco ICBC and Bank of China also participate in the Peruvian financial system.
There are 10 financial companies: CrediScotia, Compartamos, Confianza, Qapaq, Oh!, Effective, America, Mitsui, Proempresa and Credinka.
While there are six rural savings banks: Cencosud Scotia, Raíz, Los Andes, Prymera, Incasur and Del Centro.
It should be noted that banks and finance companies can issue and manage credit cards, according to Law 26702, General Law of the Financial System and the Insurance System and Organic Law of the SBS.
Municipal savings banks, rural savings banks and edpymes can also do so by complying with some requirements established by the SBS, in accordance with Law 26702.
It is important to highlight that, in order to facilitate and speed up the issuance of credit cards, the SBS approved in April 2021 a simplified authorization procedure for microfinance entities that require it.
Banks that do not charge membership
These are the following financial institutions:
• BBVA Bank offers BBVA Zero and Fixed Fee credit cards.
• Banco de Credito del Peru (BCP) has the Visa Light credit card.
• Interbank has Visa Access and Vea Privada credit cards.
• Scotiabank offers the Visa Credit Card Without Membership.
• BanBif has the BanBif Zero Membership credit card.
• Banco Falabella has the CMR Visa Basic credit card.
• Banco Ripley offers the Mastercard Basic credit card.
• Banco GNB offers three cards: Visa Platinum, Visa Gold and Visa Classic.
• Banco de Comercio offers the Classic Credit Card Without Membership.
• Financial Oh Offers the credit card Ceroh!
• CrediScotia Financiera offers the credit card MasterCard Without Membership.
• Cencosud Scotia offers the Visa Simple credit card.
It should be noted that as of August 29, 2020, the regulation of the Superintendence of Banking, Insurance and AFPs (SBS) that modifies the Regulations for Management of Market Conduct of the Financial System came into force.
The regulations establish the obligation for issuing companies to have at least one card that does not charge the annual membership fee in order to provide greater alternatives to users in contracting credit cards.
(Source: Andean)