Business credit card in Belgium: fraud, disputes, recourse

No, a business credit card does not protect you like a personal one. The law lets the issuer contract out of part of the consumer safeguards: the loss cap, the burden of proof, the dispute deadline. And the credit rules of Book VII stop applying. Read the contract before your first dispute, not after.

Does a business credit card protect you like a personal card?

Not by default. Directive (EU) 2015/2366, the second Payment Services Directive or PSD2, contains a clause written for businesses: where the payment service user is not a consumer, the parties may agree that a list of protective articles shall not apply, in whole or in part. That is Article 61 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366.

The articles that can be set aside include the ones that matter most after fraud. Article 72 puts the burden of proving authentication on the provider. Article 74 caps the payer's loss at €50 for a lost or stolen card. Articles 76 and 77 organise the refund of a charge whose amount was unexpected. The same Article 61 also allows the thirteen-month deadline of Article 71 to be replaced by another period.

Belgium had this rule before PSD2. Belgian payment and credit law sits in Book VII of the Code of Economic Law, the Belgian statute that transposes EU payment and consumer credit directives. In its 2014 version, Article VII.54 read: "Where the payment service user is not a consumer, the parties may decide that [these articles] shall not apply, in whole or in part." The Act of 19 July 2018, which transposed PSD2 into Book VII, renumbered the whole chapter. I did not re-read the consolidated text article by article for this piece: check the current number before quoting it in a letter.

The directive also lets member states treat micro-enterprises like consumers (Article 61, paragraph 3). I could not establish, as of 25 October 2026, whether and how Belgium used that option. One more reason to read your contract rather than assume.

The figure to remember: €50 of maximum loss for a consumer, and for a business, whatever the contract says.

Who refunds fraud on a company credit card?

The issuer, in principle, but on the terms it wrote. And those terms are tougher than consumer law.

The clearest example comes from Belfius. On the page for its Mastercard Business, checked on 25 October 2026, the bank presents a "zero excess protection" that removes "the usual excess of 150 euros for misuse in case of loss or theft and on the internet". Two conditions: notify Card Stop immediately, and report to the local police within 24 hours. Gross negligence remains excluded.

Put those two figures side by side. On a personal card, the holder's loss is capped at €50 by Article VII.44 of the Code of Economic Law, except in case of fraud or gross negligence. On this business card, the starting excess is €150, and it disappears only if you file a police report quickly. File it two days later and the condition is no longer met.

KBC, for its Mastercard Business Essential, simply writes: "You are protected against card fraud. No insurance is attached to the credit card." The page gives neither an excess nor a deadline. Those sit in the card's terms, which you have to ask for.

In the files I handled, business cards went through the same team as personal cards, but not under the same contract. The first thing I checked was not the amount. It was the time of the block and the date of the police report. On a business card, those two dates decided the refund.

Scams by fake bank advisers are covered in the article on refunds refused for gross negligence. The reasoning there is built for a consumer: on a business card, the issuer has even more room.

How much does a business card cost at KBC, Belfius and American Express?

Between €15 and €150 a year depending on the offer, and no published APR at any of the three issuers checked. KBC and American Express collect the full statement on a fixed date; Belfius publishes no rate on the card page.

Over twelve months, that is €15 at KBC, before the price of the business account. At Belfius, the pack costs €90 a year excluding VAT, but it also pays for the account, and the card is not billed separately. At American Express, the Business Card fee schedule carries the note "indicative (June 2018)" in a document from September 2022, still online on 25 October 2026. That is old. Ask for the current schedule before you sign.

What is the deadline to dispute a charge on a business card?

The one in your contract, which can be shorter than thirteen months. That follows directly from Article 61 of PSD2.

For a consumer, Article VII.41 of the Code of Economic Law allows thirteen months at most after the debit to report an unauthorised transaction. For a business, that ceiling can be replaced. I did not find a Belgian business card contract stating a figure on a public page as of 25 October 2026, so I will not give you one.

The other deadline, for chargebacks, does not change. It follows the Visa or Mastercard network rules, which make no difference between a private and a business cardholder. The deadlines are set out in the article on the time limit to dispute a card payment.

Does a chargeback work on a Visa Business or Mastercard Business card?

Yes, and it is often your best remedy. A chargeback is a contractual rule of the card networks, not a consumer protection. Article 61 of PSD2 does not touch it.

Goods not delivered, a service not provided, a double charge, a subscription billed after cancellation: the grounds are the same as on a personal card. You go through the issuer, with your evidence, and the issuer opens the dispute with the merchant's bank. The procedure is described in the article on chargebacks in Belgium.

One nuance: American Express is neither Visa nor Mastercard. It issues its own card and handles disputes itself, under its own terms.

How much does a late payment cost on a business card?

Whatever the issuer's fee schedule says, without the consumer credit safety net. Book VII reserves that regime for the "consumer", defined in Article I.1 of the Code as a natural person acting for purposes outside their trade or profession. A business card falls outside it, even when it opens a credit line.

The American Express Business Card schedule gives a sense of scale:

• a penalty of 2.5% of any amount still unpaid at the end of each month, minimum €15, accruing for three months;
• €25 for a rejected direct debit;
• from 90 days, a possible transfer to external collection, with late interest of 8% and fees of 10% of the amount due, minimum €100;
• 2.5% on any transaction outside the euro zone.

An example, my own calculation from that schedule. You leave €2,000 unpaid on your Business Card. The first month, the penalty is €50. If nothing is paid for three months, the cumulative penalty reaches about €150, before any external collection. From day 90, collection fees add at least €200 (10% of €2,000).

I am not claiming this schedule is heavier than that of American Express personal cards: it is not necessarily. The difference lies elsewhere. When a personal card is backed by a revolving credit agreement, Article VII.106 of the Code of Economic Law caps what the lender may charge for late payment, for instance a reminder at €7.50 at most. On a business card, there is no such cap: the contract alone sets the bill. The consumer regime is detailed in the article on late credit card payments.

If your business is short of cash, debt mediation in Belgium is in principle designed for private debts. For a business, the entry points are the chambers for businesses in difficulty at the enterprise courts and the support desks for the self-employed. This article gives reference points, not advice on your situation.

Self-employed in your own name: personal or business card for work expenses?

It is a matter of contract, not status. What counts is the intended use: a card taken out under a business offer and linked to a business account is, in principle, a business card, even in a natural person's name.

Keeping things separate has obvious accounting benefits. It also has a cost in protection that no product page mentions. On a personal card, you keep the statutory €50 excess, the thirteen-month deadline, the burden of proof on the issuer, the APR cap and Ombudsfin, the free Belgian financial services ombudsman, as a last resort. On a business card, each of those points depends on the contract.

In the files I handled, the hardest case was not the big fraud. It was the self-employed person who had paid for a private purchase with the business card, or the reverse, and discovered during the dispute that the regime followed the card, not the purchase.

Four clauses to read before you sign

The issuer looks at its contract first. Do the same, and find these four lines in the general terms or card rules:

• the excess for loss, theft or online fraud, and the conditions for waiving it (blocking deadline, police report);
• the deadline for reporting an unauthorised transaction, in days or months;
• the sentence stating who must prove what in a dispute;
• late payment and collection fees, with their minimum in euros.

If a line is missing, ask for it in writing. Card-by-card figures for personal cards are gathered in the ranking of Belgian credit cards, the comparison tool and the selection guide. If a card is lost or stolen, Card Stop answers on +32 78 170 170, for personal and business cards alike.

Sources, checked on 25 October 2026. Derogations for non-consumer users, proof of authentication, loss cap and reporting deadline: Articles 61, 71, 72 and 74 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366. Book VII and the definition of consumer: Belgian Code of Economic Law; 2014 version of Article VII.54 reproduced by Actualités du droit belge. Consumer credit: FPS Economy. Ombudsman for private individuals: Ombudsfin. Blocking: Card Stop. Fee, limits and collection calendar of the Mastercard Business Essential: official KBC page. Pack, limit and excess of the Mastercard Business: official Belfius page. Fees, withdrawal, late payment and collection charges of the Business Card: American Express fee schedule, marked "indicative (June 2018)". The penalty calculations on this page are my own and date from 25 October 2026. Quotations from Belgian sources are my translation. No link in this article is paid.