It is common to spend money by credit card. You may forget to pay back the money for various reasons. Will it be a crime to use a credit card overdue?

Using credit cards has become a common way of spending. Some cardholders have misunderstandings about the understanding and use of credit cards, are not clear about how to use credit cards correctly and safely, or are lucky about overdue repayment, which not only has a negative impact on personal loans and credit evaluation, but even inadvertently touches the legal bottom line and pays a heavy price.

According to China's criminal law, malicious overdraft is one of the cases of credit card fraud, but overdue repayment by credit card does not necessarily constitute a crime, but malicious overdraft may constitute credit card fraud if it reaches a certain amount.

Moreover, credit cards in the sense of criminal law have a broader understanding of credit cards than ordinary people, including not only credit cards with overdraft function, but also debit cards without overdraft function.

If the cardholder overdraws beyond the prescribed limit or time limit for the purpose of illegal possession, and fails to return it for more than 3 months after being urged twice by the issuing bank, it can be considered as malicious overdraft.

Malicious overdraft of more than 6,543,800 yuan can constitute the crime of credit card fraud. The amount of malicious overdraft refers to the amount that the cardholder refuses to return or has not yet returned, excluding the compound interest, late fees and handling fees charged by the issuing bank.

Legal basis:

Article 196 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) commits credit card fraud under any of the following circumstances. If the amount is relatively large, it shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and shall also be fined not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan; If the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years, and shall also be fined not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan; If the amount is especially huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined not less than 50,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan or confiscated property:

(1) Using a forged credit card;

(2) Using an invalid credit card;

(3) Fraudulent use of another person's credit card;

(4) malicious overdraft.

The term "malicious overdraft" as mentioned in the preceding paragraph refers to the behavior that the cardholder overdraws beyond the prescribed limit or time limit for the purpose of illegal possession, and refuses to return it after being urged by the issuing bank.