Banks have two faces.

Beautiful offices and friendly faces try to hide the big commissions, taxes and interests.
The first helps the second become more bearable.
They are trying to create a more friendly environment for the customers by putting a football on their desk or by placing a caricature on the wall, all this is part of Raiffeisen’s project pilot called ‘Friendly Banking’ where the bank is encouraging their employees to express their hobbies.
If Raiffeisen is exploiting the feelings of their customers, BRD, Garanti Bank and UniCredit Tiriac are going on visual impact. BRD came up with the first personalized Card (example: you can put your picture on the card); Garanti Bank Romania is preparing to come up with a Card that has a mirror on it so the ladies can fix there make up, UniCredit Tiriac is putting fruits on their Cards(apple, strawberry…).
All this small attentions and cosmetics are necessary because they want to make their Criminal Cards look more appealing to the customer.

So what are they trying to hide?

In 2005 there were 5 million Credit Cards in Romania, by the year 2009 the number doubled up to 11 million. For these Credit cards the bank charges are up to 50%!!! (Commission and interest)

- 24% interest/year.
- 0,5% monthly management fee.
- 14 lei for every 3.000 lei used, Account management fee.
- 17lei monthly insurance fee.
- 2,5%-3% extraction fee.

For co-branded Card the interest go up to 30% (BRD-Carrefour credit card), according to Forbes calculations.

So for a 3.000 lei credit you pay monthly 186 lei interest + 50 lei commissions + 17 lei insurance fee + 14 lei management fee = 267 lei (9% of the credit).

The most expensive Credit Cards in Romania