No, not if you carry a balance. The Beobank Smart Travel Mastercard returns 1 point per EUR 2 spent, or 0.5% of purchases, paid out only at a hotel or tour operator. At a 12.46% borrowing rate, interest wipes out that gain in sixteen days. Cashback only pays if you clear the whole statement, every month.
Does cashback make up for credit card interest?
No. Cashback is counted in tenths of a percent, interest in tens of percent a year, and interest runs every day.
Take the only Belgian cashback credit card still on sale that I could find with its three figures published: the Beobank Smart Travel Mastercard. It gives 1 point per EUR 2 of purchases. 2,500 points are worth EUR 25 of cash back. The return is therefore 0.5%. Its actuarial borrowing rate is 12.46% a year, or about 0.032% a day.
A EUR 100 purchase earns 50 points, so EUR 0.50. Left on the credit line, it costs about EUR 0.032 of interest a day. By the sixteenth day, the cashback is gone. The calculation is mine, at the equivalent daily rate.
The card's pre-contractual information sheet, required before any signature by Article VII.70 of the Code of Economic Law (Book VII, Belgium's payment and consumer credit rules), contains a sentence few cardholders read: interest is calculated daily on the outstanding balance and on new transactions, for as long as you have not repaid the full amount. Once you carry a balance, next month's shopping bears interest from day one. Its points still arrive. They are no longer enough.
How much does a cashback credit card earn in Belgium?
0.5% at best on the Beobank, and nothing measurable in euros on the American Express Gold, whose points do not convert at a rate published on the page consulted. Here are the two cards, with the three figures nobody reads before signing.
| Card | Annual fee | APR on the carried balance | EUR 100 cash withdrawal | Reward | Where it can be used | Rate checked at the issuer on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beobank Smart Travel Mastercard | EUR 30 | 14.49% (EUR 3,200 line, borrowing rate 12.46%) | EUR 5.00 (2.50%, minimum EUR 5) | 1 point per EUR 2, EUR 25 per 2,500 points, EUR 250 a year at most | Payment at a hotel or tour operator | 13 October 2026 |
| American Express Gold | EUR 240 | not applicable, the full amount is paid each month | EUR 4.50 (3.5%, minimum EUR 4.50) | 1 Membership Rewards point per euro | Statement credit, purchases at partners, transfers to airline programmes | 13 October 2026 |
The Smart Travel carries a constraint that the word "cashback" hides: the money only arrives when you pay a hotel or tour operator with the card. Not a supermarket, not a bill. Beobank then redeems the points automatically, in blocks of 2,500, and pays the amount no later than 30 days afterwards.
The programme rules count points purchase by purchase, not on the statement total. A EUR 3.90 coffee earns 1 point. A EUR 1.80 parking ticket earns none.
Among banks, other programmes exist without being tied to a specific card. BNP Paribas Fortis's Easy Cashback, for instance, refunds part of purchases made at partner retailers, to the payment account, once a month. The percentage depends on each retailer's offer: it cannot be compared with a fixed rate. Retailer cards, whose discount is taken at the till, get their own calculation in the article on the Carrefour Visa, Cofidis and Buy Way.
How much must you spend before cashback pays for the annual fee?
EUR 10,000 of purchases on the Smart Travel. One EUR 25 block does not cover a EUR 30 fee: you need two, so 5,000 points.
The next table sets four profiles against the same card, over twelve months. Interest is calculated on a constant carried balance at the 12.46% borrowing rate, leaving out interest on new purchases. The real cost is therefore slightly higher than shown.
| Profile over twelve months | Purchases | Cashback paid | Annual fee | Interest on the carried balance | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statement cleared every month | EUR 12,000 | EUR 50 | EUR 30 | EUR 0 | +EUR 20.00 |
| EUR 500 carried at all times | EUR 12,000 | EUR 50 | EUR 30 | EUR 62.30 | −EUR 42.30 |
| EUR 1,500 carried at all times | EUR 12,000 | EUR 50 | EUR 30 | EUR 186.90 | −EUR 166.90 |
| Cap reached, statement cleared | EUR 50,000 | EUR 250 | EUR 30 | EUR 0 | +EUR 220.00 |
Over twelve months, that makes a EUR 20 gain for the disciplined cardholder spending EUR 1,000 a month. They keep 1,000 points, valid for two years. For the same cardholder with EUR 1,500 carried, the year ends at −EUR 166.90. The cashback barely moves the result.
What happens to cashback when you only pay the minimum?
It becomes a discount on your own debt. On the Smart Travel, the minimum payment is 1/18 of the credit used, with a floor of EUR 25, plus the annual fee.
On EUR 1,500 used, that comes to EUR 83.33 a month. The rest bears interest. The minimum is not a repayment plan: it is set to keep the line open, not to empty it quickly. The article on credit card interest walks through the mechanism month by month.
In the files I handled, the cardholders asking where their cashback had gone were almost always those paying the minimum. The points did show on the statement. Three lines further down, the month's interest was larger.
Does a card without a credit line escape the problem?
Yes for interest, no for cost. The American Express Gold carries no revolving balance: American Express's fee schedule, valid from 1 February 2026, requires the full amount to be settled each month. So there is no APR, and no interest eats into the points.
The bill moves elsewhere. The annual fee is EUR 240. A late payment costs 5% of the amount due, with a minimum of EUR 20 and a maximum of EUR 2,000. On a EUR 1,500 statement paid late, that is EUR 75. On a EUR 300 statement, the EUR 20 minimum already amounts to 6.7%.
For the Gold to beat the Smart Travel, its points would need to earn at least EUR 210 more a year, the gap in annual fees. The schedule does not give the value of a point in euros: run the calculation with the conversion table shown in your customer area before signing. For the card itself, see American Express in Belgium.
What happens to points in a dispute, a refund or a cancellation?
Beobank's rules answer three cases out of four, and the fourth is the one that makes the files. Here is what they provide:
- credit line suspended by the bank, after a late payment for instance: no points on transactions during that period;
- credit line cancelled, by you or by the bank: the points lapse, even if they are less than two years old;
- change to the programme: possible unilaterally, with at least two months' notice;
- purchase refunded by the merchant or reversed by chargeback: the rules say nothing.
The two-month notice matches the period that Article 54 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, the second Payment Services Directive, sets for any change to a payment framework contract. For a rise in the rate of the credit line itself, Article VII.86(5) of the Code of Economic Law opens a right to terminate if the change exceeds 25% of the agreed rate: the Beobank sheet says so.
At the issuer where I worked, the credit for a refund removed the points of the original purchase, to the unit. Nothing says Beobank proceeds the same way. Ask in writing before opening a payment dispute. The issuer looks first at the net amount of the transaction after the credit, not at the points balance.
Before cancelling, redeem the points. Otherwise they disappear with the line.
Is the 14.49% APR close to the legal maximum?
It touches it. Since 1 June 2025, the maximum APR for a credit line with a card, between EUR 1,251 and EUR 5,000, is 14.50%, according to the table of maximum APRs from the FPS Economy, Belgium's federal economy ministry, updated on 1 December 2025. The Smart Travel, on EUR 3,200, shows 14.49%.
In its June 2024 brochure, the same card showed 15.99% on EUR 3,000, when the ceiling was 16%. The rate follows the ceiling. The pre-contractual sheet says so: the borrowing rate only changes when the legal maximum APR changes, under Article 12 of the Royal Decree of 14 September 2016. If the ceiling rises, your rate rises. On the difference between APR and borrowing rate, a separate article.
Three documents to read before signing, Ombudsfin afterwards
The pre-contractual information sheet, the points programme rules, the fee schedule. The first two are public at Beobank, the third at American Express. The brochure does not highlight this: the points programme is not part of the credit contract, it is changed separately, and faster.
If promised cashback does not appear, write to the issuer's complaints department, dated, keeping a copy. If there is no agreement, Ombudsfin, Belgium's ombudsman for financial disputes, reviews the case free of charge. To compare cards on their cost rather than their points, start from the ranking of Belgian credit cards, the comparison tool and the selection guide.
Sources, accessed on 13 October 2026. EUR 30 annual fee, 14.49% APR, 12.46% borrowing rate (rates in force on 9 May 2025), minimum payment and how the cash back works: Beobank Smart Travel Mastercard page. Interest on new transactions, 2.50% withdrawal fee (minimum EUR 5), Article 12 of the Royal Decree of 14 September 2016 and Article VII.86(5): Beobank pre-contractual information sheet. Points per purchase, exclusions, suspension and cancellation: Smart Travel loyalty programme rules. 15.99% APR on EUR 3,000 (rates on 3 June 2024): Beobank 2024 brochure. EUR 240 annual fee, late fees, Express Cash and Membership Rewards included: American Express list of fees, valid from 1 February 2026. Maximum APRs: FPS Economy, version of 1 December 2025. Changes to a framework contract: Directive (EU) 2015/2366, Article 54. Book VII: Code of Economic Law. Return, threshold and interest calculations: author, 13 October 2026. No link in this article is paid for.
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Delphine a passé sept ans au service litiges et rétrofacturation d’un émetteur de cartes belge, à Liège, entre 2015 et 2022 : le bureau où atterrissent les contestations de porteurs, les retraits facturés deux fois et les cautions d’hôtel qui restent bloquées trois semaines. Elle a donc lu, ligne par ligne, plusieurs milliers de relevés de cartes belges, et elle sait où se logent les montants que personne ne regarde avant de signer. Depuis 2023 elle relève chaque trimestre les tarifs publiés des émetteurs belges et tient le tableau de coûts qui sert de base à ce site. Ce qui l’agace : les brochures qui annoncent une carte à 0 € sans mentionner que le premier retrait au distributeur coûte 5 € fixes plus 1,8 % de commission, et que les intérêts courent dès le jour du retrait.