Can a credit card really cost no interest at all?

Can a credit card really cost no interest at all?

Yes, under one precise condition: the statement has to be settled in full, every month, on the due date. A deferred-debit card delays the payment; it attaches no interest to it as long as nothing is carried over. It is the simplest card on the Belgian market, and also the most misunderstood one. Its name carries the word credit. In this specific use, it is not one.

That is not a commercial courtesy or a gesture from the issuer. It is an exclusion written into the law itself, and it is exactly why two cards that look alike can cost €0 or more than €90 a year without the brochure ever saying so plainly.

Why does deferred debit escape consumer credit rules?

Because Book VII of the Belgian Code of Economic Law explicitly carves this kind of operation out of its scope. A credit repayable in one go, free of interest and fees beyond a modest threshold, over a short period, is not a consumer credit within the meaning of article VII.3. A card settled in full every month matches that definition exactly.

In practical terms, this mechanism needs no formal creditworthiness assessment on its own, is not registered at the Central Individual Credit Register as long as the balance returns to zero, and publishes no APR because there is nothing to compare. The card then works as a payment service, governed by the framework contract, not by the credit regime.

In the files I used to handle, the cardholder almost always missed this distinction. They believed they had a credit with their bank, when most of the time all they had was a free payment delay and nothing more.

So where does an APR hide, if the card looks free?

In an option the cardholder switches on personally, never in everyday use.

At KBC, the base credit card is free and runs on pure deferred debit. The issuer also offers an option called Flex Budget: instead of settling the statement in one go, the cardholder spreads repayments over several months. That option carries a real, published cost: an actuarial borrowing rate of 8.97 %, an APR of 9.35 %, and a legal minimum payment of 5.6 % of the amount used, rate surveyed at the issuer on 28 September 2026.

The figure to remember: on a €1,000 balance spread over a full year through Flex Budget, that comes to roughly €93 in interest. Over twelve months, that exceeds the combined annual fees of several cards on the Belgian market. The card stays free on paper. It is the option that costs, not the card.

More often than not, the cardholder who called me about a "hidden rate" had in fact switched on Flex Budget without realising it, by ticking a box while renewing a card or requesting a higher limit over the phone.

The word "Classic" does not mean the same thing everywhere

Two cards carrying almost the same commercial name can work in opposite ways. ING's Visa Classic offers no payment delay at all: every purchase is charged immediately to the linked account. No APR is attached to it, for a simple reason: there is nothing to defer, so nothing to lend.

Over twelve months, the comparison is therefore not between one product and its twin. The KBC card can cost €0 or roughly €93 in interest depending on a choice the cardholder makes. The ING card costs €27 a year, full stop, and carries no APR because it offers none.

On my desk, ING's Visa Classic never showed up as a rate dispute. It does not produce one. The only complaints concerned the immediate charge, which cardholders had not anticipated closely enough at the till.

Do withdrawals or a carried balance change the picture?

Yes, and it is the point most cardholders discover too late. Free payment deferral only covers purchases in shops or online. A cash withdrawal remains, on most Belgian contracts, a separate operation: a fee set by the issuer, and interest that can start running from the day of the withdrawal under the general terms, regardless of any spreading option.

The exact cost of a €100 withdrawal is broken down card by card in the article on credit card withdrawal fees. The rule stays the same everywhere: what is free on a pure deferred-debit card is the payment delay on a purchase, nothing else.

Four lines to check before signing

• the debit mode written into the contract, deferred or immediate, never assumed from the card's commercial name;
• whether an optional spreading facility exists, and its own APR, distinct from the card itself;
• the minimum payment on that option if it exists, in euros and as a percentage of the balance;
• the date on which the displayed rate was surveyed at the issuer, without which no figure is comparable from one card to another.

The ranking of Belgian credit cards sets out these amounts card by card, the comparison tool puts them side by side, and the article on credit card interest details the APR of cards attached to a cash reserve, which carry interest from the first euro carried over, with no option to switch on.

Sources. Exclusion of short-term interest-free credit: Book VII of the Belgian Code of Economic Law, article VII.3; consumer credit, FPS Economy. Maximum APRs and adjustment method: Royal Decree of 14 September 2016, maximum rates published by the FPS Economy, revision effective 1 December 2025. Central Individual Credit Register: National Bank of Belgium. Rates for the KBC base credit card and the Flex Budget option surveyed on 28 September 2026 on the official KBC and KBC Flex Budget pages. Rates for ING's Visa Classic surveyed on 28 September 2026 via Cartedecredit.be, ING's own pricing page not being directly readable outside an active session. No link in this article is paid.