When a person has one or more debts, creditors can take some steps to try to recover what is owed to him.
One such measure is the seizure of assets – which includes credit and prepaid cards, or rather the money on the card.
In this article, we will explore which credit cards are likely to be foreclosed by creditors, and which are not.
Prepaid card foreclosure
Unfortunately, it can happen that for an unpaid debt, a request is made to the judge to seize the money present in the debtor’s accounts. This also includes the balance on the prepaid cards. If the prepaid card is not linked to a bank account and therefore is a reloadable card or card with IBAN, then the card balance can be confiscated.
This means that for those with prepaid cards who owe money to creditors, their assets are not safe. The seizure of the card can take place even if it is not in the possession of the debtor, since the balance of the card is considered an asset.
In any case, it must be considered that the physical card cannot be seized as it is nominal but the balance inside it can be seized.
Credit card foreclosure
The law states that when a checking account is involved, the credit card cannot be seized. Precisely because the credit score on the card may have been spent or not and, once spent, it will be charged to the current account. Basically, the credit on the credit card is not of the owner but of the company that provided it.
The seizure therefore cannot take place because it would violate the so-called “seizure of credits”. This principle was introduced in 2006 with the legislative decree n. 231/2006, which amended the bankruptcy law.
Hype Card Foreclosure
The Hype card is a nominal card with IBAN and can therefore be attached without any problems by the creditor. It also doesn’t provide any ability to make disposable cards.
Foreclosure Card N26
Even if N26 is a German company, it still remains a sizeable card since it is nominal and with IBAN, therefore not linked to a bank account.
Postepay foreclosure
As well as all nominal cards, Postepay (Standard or Evolution) can also be seized.
Credit cards not subject to seizure
If a card is not linked to a bank account but is a reloadable, prepaid card, with or without an IBAN, then it can be seized by creditors without any problems. This happens because there are no guarantees given to the card issuer, so there is no risk of loss for them.
The cards not subject to seizure are the non-nominal ones, that is the disposable cards. These are cards that can be used until the credit on them is used up, and then they are thrown away.
In recent years, many online disposable cards have been born (see Revolut), where it is no longer necessary to obtain the physical card to be used but just generate it directly from the app and use it later online or through services such as Google pay or Apple Pay.
In conclusion, we have seen that if a credit or prepaid card is linked to a bank account, it cannot be seized by creditors. However, if the credit card is not linked to a bank account,
