Al Baraka Bank contacted Ahram Online and clarified that its clients can still access a monthly limit of $250 on their credit cards while travelling abroad upon permission from the bank after submitting travel documents.
Additionally, EG-Bank set the credit card international purchasing limit at EGP 3,000 while Al Baraka Bank Egypt set the POS & E-commerce international purchasing limit at EGP 7,750.
The move came as Egyptian banks have applied more restrictions on the usage of credit cards outside Egypt to maintain a domestic supply of foreign currency.
The USD is traded in the official market for EGP 30.9 and EGP 58.7 in the parallel market.
Last week, the Commercial International Bank (CIB), the biggest private bank in the country, and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Egypt reduced the credit cards' foreign currency withdrawal limits.
Egyptian banks have limited credit card foreign currency spending since 2022 to halt the exhaustion of foreign currency resources.
In December, a group of Egyptian banks suspended international transactions for newly issued credit cards for up to six months as of the date of issuance. Among the suspended cards are those issued by the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr, and the CIB.
On 17 October, the Central Bank of Egypt issued new instructions to regulate the use of credit cards for transactions in foreign currencies amid concerns of misuse.
Local banks had already suspended hard currency cash withdrawals and purchases for debit card users on 9 October.
Other bank arrangements
To safeguard the savings of Egyptians, banks have been issuing new products with high yields. Earlier in January, the NBE, Banque Misr, and the Arab African International Bank launched new saving accounts with yields of up to 23 percent.
On 4 January, NBE and Banque Misr announced the issuance of new CDs with annual yields of 23.5 percent and 27 percent, respectively.
Banks seek to attract a huge liquidity of more than half a trillion pounds that was prone to be injected into the market in January as previous CDs by NBE and Banque Misr mature.
Short link: