Honduras: Defending debtors

Hondurans who have problems in paying credit card debt have a measure of relief, following the entry into force last April of amendments to the Credit Card Act.

A debtor who cannot pay the balance owing on his / her credit card, may require the issuer to grant a payment arrangement of nor less than 36 months.

Otherwise, the issuer in the case of a bank must grant a loan, which lets the debtor repay the debt at an interest rate lower than that normally applied in the case of credit card.

Another change involves the way an issuer acts in a case of suspected fraud.

Under the new rules, the issuer in the case of a disputed transaction cannot make the cardholder responsible for proving that there was fraud.

Before, the cardholder had to prove that there was fraud.

Another change imposed by the law prohibits the collector of an issuer to call a debtor more than once per day.

Previously, there was no limit on the number of calls that could be made.

For more information, please contact Patricia Solórzano at [email protected] or (504) 2221-1002.