New Credit Card Rules: Stay on Top of What Has Changed!

Who has never taken credit card in a tighter month or parceled a more substantial shopping, a vacation trip or that new smartphone? The problem is that a lot of people end up losing a little on their bills, accumulating installments and more installments - and falling into such revolving credit. Then, in a short time, these people find themselves with a debt in their hands that, in addition to seeming endless, never stops growing.

However, as you may have heard, the revolving rules have changed and are now effective in early April. So, as of May, invoices will start to show the changes proposed by the Government - and many people couldn't quite understand how the changes will affect their accounts. If you are one of them, don't worry, as we here at Mega Curioso will explain very well why the rules have been changed and what is going to apply from now on. Check out:

What is revolving credit?

For those who have heard about the term revolving credit but are not sure what it means, basically, it is the good old "minimum bill payment", that option used by customers who are unable to pay the full amount. card bill in a given month. Until early April, the unpaid balance remained for the next month's invoice and added to the sum of all other purchases and interest - and so on.

This created a real snowball, because if the customer had already had difficulty paying the previous bill, the debt would gradually become larger. And you may have heard many cases of people who ended up using revolving credit indiscriminately and had to find a way to negotiate their debts, right?

Why were the changes proposed?

Changes to the revolving credit rules were proposed precisely to help remedy the situation explained above, that is, to avoid over-indebtedness and to reduce default. To this end, the rules for minimum invoice payment are now different, and this talk of accumulating remaining balances from previous accounts is also over.

What has changed?

Beginning in May, customers will only be able to use revolving credit for one invoice cycle and will have to pay off the remaining balance of the previous invoice the following month. The minimum payment is now the remaining amount of the previous month - if any - plus revolving credit charges, plus 15% of the month's expenses, plus the amount of financing installments from previous invoices, if any.

In the event that the customer is unable to make at least the minimum payment of the invoice, the banks will offer the installment solutions best suited to their conditions.

And in practice?

To give you a better idea of ​​how things will work from now on, according to a monthly survey by Anefac - National Association of Finance, Administration and Accounting Executives - interest rates in February reached 15.16 %, which is about 444% per year. In addition, there is also the average rate of installment credit, which is 8.3% per month.

Thus, someone with an invoice of $ 1, 000 who could not pay off the balance would see the amount jump to $ 1, 527.23 after three months and to $ 5, 440.26 after 12 - assuming the person had no new expenses. and did not accumulate any installment of funding!

However, following the new rules, considering the same interest rate of 15.16% per month, it will focus on the first 30 days, while 8.3% will continue to focus on the remaining months. Thus, the same debt of R $ 1, 000.00 would rise to R $ 1, 350.70 in the first quarter and to R $ 2, 768.31 in 12 months - representing a difference of 11.6% in the three months and 49.1 % throughout the year.

How to escape possible debts?

No one is saying that credit cards are supervillains, nor should they be retired. But it costs nothing to be a little more controlled and learn how to schedule spending according to your income.

In this sense, our country's banking institutions offer various tools that can help a lot at these times. Banco do Brasil, for example, sends alerts every time the credit card is used and, through the Ourocard app, allows for a more convenient, convenient and quick control of spending.