Why Do We Pay Card Fee?

• Costs that Form the Credit Card Membership Fee:
  
  

  • Cost of non-cash loan allocation
  • Operational costs of entering the application
  • Cost of physical chip of the credit card
  • Card issue and mailing cost
  • Account Statement printing and mailing cost
  • Costs of additional services provided to cardholders
  • Costs of insurance against fraud risks
  • Credit card system’s software and hardware cost
  • License, provision and clearing service costs, paid to international card organizations
  • Card marketing costs spent for meeting the requests of and providing services to customers, costs of operational employees related with cards, and costs of call centers operating 7×24
  • Costs of printed materials, advertisements and promotions

  NOTE: Banks are receiving the costs of these services, which are provided to credit card holders, from the customer under the name of “credit card membership fee” and they are not receiving any other commission fee for “non-cash loans” that they facilitated to the customers by issuing a credit card for them.
  
• Legal Regulations Pertaining to Credit Card Fee

  a) Turkish Code of Commerce, No. 6102

  Banking organizations are commercial enterprises operating under Article 11 of Turkish Code of Commerce. Article 16 of the said law states that all commercial enterprises are merchants. Since banks can only be established by incorporations, which are also commercial enterprises, the legal entity (incorporation) that operates a bank is a merchant. Therefore banks are also considered as merchants according to relevant provisions of Turkish Code of Commerce. Article 20, titled”Right to Claim a Fee”, of the said law states,”A merchant that has performed a business or service through its commercial enterprise for any person, who is a merchant or not, can claim a suitable fee”.
  

  b) Banking Act, No. 5411

  Article 144, titled”Interest rates and other benefits”, of the Banking act states,”The Council of Ministers shall have the authority to determine maximum interest rates to be applied to banks’ loans and deposits, the loss or profit participation rates in participation accounts and the nature and maximum quantity or rates of other interests that will be acquired as a result of the transactions indicated in this article including special current accounts and to liberate such amounts and rates in whole or in part. The Council of Ministers may delegate these powers to the Central Bank.”
  

  aa) Resolution of Board of Ministers, dated October 16, 2006 and no. 2006/11188

  The Board of Ministers have announced a resolution on October 16, 2006, with no. 2006/11188, based on the authority granted to it under aforesaid Article 144 of the Banking Act. It is required under Article 4, titled”Other benefits” of the Resolution that was published at Official Journal, dated November 22, 2006, no. 26354, that types and maximum amounts or ratios of the bank’s benefits other than interest to be gained from credit transactions and types of costs to be collected and the decisions to release them completely or partially will be regulated by the communiqués to be announced by the Central Bank of Turkish Republic.
  

  ab) Communiqué 2006/1 of the Central Bank of Turkish Republic:

  As required by the Resolution of Board of Ministers, No. 2006/11188, the Central Bank of Turkish Republic has announced a Communiqué on Deposit and Credit Interest Rates, Participation Ratios of Participation Accounts and Benefits Other Than Interest to be Provided for Credit Transactions, No. 2006/1. It is stated in Article 4, titled”Credit interest rates and other benefits to be provided”, of the Communiqué No. 2006/1, published at Official Journal, dated December 9, 2006, and no. 26371, that”Interest rates to be applied by the banks to the credits other than rediscount credits and types and limits of other benefits to be provided other than interest and expenses to be collected are determined freely”.
  

  c) Law on Debit Cards and Credit Cards, No. 5464

  It is stated in Article 24, titled”Agreement terms” of the Law on Debit Cards and Credits Cards, No. 5464, which is considered as a special law, that the bank cannot claim any payment from the cardholder under interest, commission or expenses not stated in the agreement due to the transactions conducted by the cardholder, and it cannot deduct any amount from the cardholder’s account.
  

  d) Law on Protection of Consumers, No. 4077

  The Law does not have any provision that prevents application of credit card fees.
  

  e) Code of Liabilities, No. 6098

  Collections for credit cards are made according to an agreement to be executed by and between the cardholder and relevant bank. For these purposes the parties can determine the provisions of such agreement in accordance with the freedom of agreement principle, available in the Code of Liabilities.
  Furthermore, as it is known, the rights, debts, and liabilities of the parties, including credit card fees, are specified in the agreements executed by and between credit cardholders and banks.