Fatwa No : 39561
Ruling on Obtaining a Credit Card

Ruling on Obtaining a Credit Card

الجوابُ حامِدا ًو مُصلیِّا ً

In principal, it would not be permissible to obtain a credit card since it involves entering into an interest based contract. Meaning, one must agree to pay extra charges in the event of late payments of installments before attaining a credit card . Paying extra on the basis of a loan is Riba ,which is unlawful as per Shari'ah, therefore, it would also be unlawful to sign/adhere to an agreement that obligates one to engage in Riba. Hence, this must be avoided.
However, if one obtains a credit card due to an unavoidable situation, then he must avoid having to pay extra charges due to late payments. Nonetheless, if the bank gives the aforementioned tree types of rewards/bonuses to the customer without him having to put any specific amount of money in his account, then there is no harm if the customer makes use of them.