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Is using a Visa card issued by a usurious bank to withdraw $2,000 monthly, with the aim of profiting from the black market exchange rate difference, considered usury, given that the funds are personal and in a current account? Is earning profit from currency exchange in this manner unlawful? If the POS device owner is compensated for the fees deducted from him for the cash withdrawal, is there any suspicion of usury or unlawfulness in that?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Visa cards are of two types: covered (prepaid) and permissible with fees exceeding the actual cost, and uncovered (loan) on which no fees may be charged except for the actual cost or a late penalty. This is because any increase is considered usury (riba).

It is permissible for the bank to take a commission from the merchant in exchange for facilitating the purchase, provided that the merchant does not add this commission to the price of the commodity. The Fiqh Academy prohibits this if the merchant's sale with the card differs in price from cash. It is not permissible for the customer to pay what the bank takes from the merchant, as this leads to paying a fee for a guarantee or interest on a loan, both of which are forbidden.

It is permissible to withdraw money with the card and convert it to another currency to send it to another country and spend it there. The prohibition arises if the card is uncovered and incurs additional fees or a late penalty, or if cash is withdrawn from points of sale while paying the commission imposed on the merchant by the bank.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy