According to data provided by the Ministry of Economy, until October 31st, Costa Rican, credit-card debt amounted to 1 trillion colones. This figure is equivalent to 3.34% of GDP and it is 21% higher than the figure shown last year. The average balance per card is 430,500 colones.
Welmer Ramos, minister of Economy, believes that these numbers draws the attention as plastic money payment is being preferred among buyers.
According to data from the Central Bank, analyzed by the MEIC, in the period 2013-2015 the number of card payments grew by 40%.
The MEIC analyzed about 12 issuing companies that had special programs. Some of them did not meet the necessary requirements to inform consumers about the terms of paying in installments.
Some of the violations are unclear advertising, lack of information, unreported penalties, clauses that restrict possibility of any arrangements and unfair terms, among others.
The Ministry will aim to improve regulations and supervision of credit programs, in order to eradicate the practice of establishing annoying procedures that complicate the payment of debt.