Usury rate in Belgium: the cap on a credit card

Belgium has no usury rate: it caps the APR, by type of credit and by amount bracket. For a credit card with spread repayment, the December 2025 grid gives 16.50% up to 1,250 euros of credit, 14.50% up to 5,000 and 13.50% above. The Beobank contracts this site has recorded sit one hundredth of a point under that cap.

The word is French. The FPS Economy speaks of maximum rates, and Wikifin (French) points out that the law sets APRs (page updated on 12 February 2026).

16.50%, 14.50%, 13.50%: the grid that targets a card since December 2025

Test-Achats (French) published the grid on 18 December 2025, for contracts concluded from 1 December. The cap depends on the type of credit, the amount and, for a credit line, whether a card is attached.

Cards did not move. The FPS Economy press release of 27 November 2025 (French) declares credit lines unchanged, and BusinessAM (French) was already publishing 16.50, 14.50 and 13.50% for the card on 31 May 2025, on the eve of the 1.5-point cut of 1 June (press release of 28 May 2025, French).

Twice a year, in March and September, the FPS Economy re-reads the reference indices, that is, interbank rates or government bond yields at one, two or three years, and when their average moves by at least 0.75 point from the previous adjustment the cap follows, with a notice in the Moniteur belge and an application a few weeks later: published on 8 October 2025, the latest cut took effect on 1 December.

It covers all new contracts and existing contracts with a variable borrowing rate. An existing fixed-rate contract keeps its rate, and the duty to bring the line back to zero runs on its own clock, explained in the guide to the zero-balance deadline.

Read the grid in columns. In the same bracket, a credit line with a card is allowed three points above one without a card: 14.50% against 11.50% between 1,251 and 5,000 euros. On 3,000 euros drawn for a year, in simple interest, that makes 435 euros against 345, so 90 euros that the law accepts for the sole fact of having a card at the end of the line. Above 5,000 euros, the card (13.50%) can even cost more than an instalment loan (12%), while below 1,250 euros it is the other way round. The cap therefore does not rank credits from cheapest to dearest.

The cap bears on the APR, which adds up:

• the borrowing rate applied to the unpaid balance;
• the card's annual fee, built into the calculation (at Beobank, 5 euros a year explain the gap between a 13.98% borrowing rate and a 14.49% APR on the Visa Classic, recorded on 27 August 2026);
• the other mandatory costs tied to the contract.

Currency conversion, DCC and withdrawal fees are outside it, as our glossary of card fees details. The rates actually charged by bank are in our guide to credit card interest rates, and the full yearly bill of a card, interest included, in the pillar How much does a credit card really cost in Belgium.

I cannot guarantee that this grid is today's. On 4 November 2026 the FPS Economy's maximum-rates page put an anti-robot check in my way, and I found no press release after the one of 27 November 2025. In 2025 the September review took effect on 1 December; nothing I read announces the same for 2026. Nor have I read the text of the royal decree that carries the caps. For a signing decision, the line for your bracket must be checked on the official page.

Does a Belgian issuer charge less than the cap?

Beobank sits under the cap of its bracket to within one hundredth of a point. Four lines, drawn from three documents this site recorded in 2026 (including the Mastercard ranking), go through the grid.

The last row is worth a look on its own. On 750 euros, the same document prices the card at 16.49% and an instalment loan at 20.50%: the most flexible credit is here the cheapest, against intuition, which our pillar on paying without a credit card already notes.

The Visa Classic rate carries the mention "in force on 09/05/2025". That date falls after the notice published in the Moniteur belge on 11 April 2025 and before 1 June, the day credit lines lost 1.5 points. Before that cut, the cap of the bracket was therefore 1.5 points higher, and a 14.49% rate set on 9 May left room that Beobank did not use. The timing looks like an alignment on the coming cap. Beobank has published no reason; the alignment is my reading.

In this bracket, when the issuer sits one hundredth under the cap, the cap becomes its price list. I do not call it protection for the customer. Nor do I see a fault in it: the law allows that price, and the grid says nothing about the price it would be reasonable to pay.

Not every issuer climbs that high. Our rates guide recorded in May 2026 an APR of 8.50% at BNP Paribas Fortis (Optiline) and 9.35% at KBC. Three contracts from one issuer do not make the market, and I have no dated record for the others.

Checking an offer against the grid: limit, APR, date

1. Look for the amount of credit in the SECCI, the information sheet handed over before signing. A product page's example may aim at another amount than your limit (750, 2,150 and 2,600 euros above): take the line for your limit.
2. Compare the SECCI's APR with the "with card" box.
3. Look at the dates. A rate "in force on" a given date is read against the cap of that date.
4. Note whether the rate is fixed or variable: a falling cap does not lower a fixed rate already signed.

I have read no text giving the penalty for exceeding the cap. A challenge goes through a letter to the issuer, then through Ombudsfin (complaint guide), within the framework set by the pillar on cardholder rights.

Grid re-read on 4 November 2026 on Test-Achats (18 December 2025) and on the FPS Economy's press releases; its rates page stayed shut.