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Ireland: the annual stamp duty on the card itself

Irish minimum payments follow the common European shape: the greater of about 3% of the balance or a small flat amount of around €6, with the month's interest taken from within that percentage rather than added to it. There is no statutory ceiling on the rate.

The Irish oddity is a charge that has nothing to do with the balance. The State levies stamp duty of €30 a year on every credit card account, collected in arrears by the issuer and passed on whether the card is used or not. It is charged per account rather than per card, so two cards on one account attract one €30 charge, and it is why closing a dormant Irish card is worth doing: an unused account still costs €30 a year. Switching accounts within a year does not double the duty, but only if you hand the letter of closure from the old issuer to the new one.

That €30 does not appear anywhere in the calculator above, which models interest and principal only. Add it to the total cost of any Irish plan that runs for more than a year, along with any annual fee the card charges on top.

For how the calculation works, the formula behind it and what it leaves out, see the full guide.

Data sources

  • Irish consumer finance conventions

    Effective 2021-01-01 onward · retrieved 2026-08-30

    The scheduled increase in the State Pension age was cancelled, leaving it at 66.

    How we checked these figures

    Citizens Information publishes 66 as the State Pension age, with a deferral option to 70.

    Current

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Each country has its own rates, thresholds and rules, and its own page with the official sources they came from.

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