FACUA denounces website charging to renew European health cards
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 @ 12:44 PM
ONE of Spain’s main consumer protection organisations has warned about a website which charges €59 to renew a European health card used to cover emergency medical treatment when travelling within the EU, and which gives the impression of being the official platform for doing so.
Although the company’s activity is not, technically, illegal, it is highly misleading, because there is no charge for applying for or replacing an EU health card – the €59 fee is merely that which the firm charges for doing so on applicants’ behalf.
And there is no need to pay someone else to do so, since the process via the official channel – the Social Security office – is just as simple.
FACUA-Consumers in Action says the website uses different addresses, and in the small print of each, explains that they are the property of a company named Servione Servicios Generales, S.L.
This has since changed its name to Momentum Euroconsulting, S.L.
Both are domiciled in the Greater Madrid region satellite town of Alcobendas.
The site – for which one of the addresses is tsetarjetasanitariaeuropea.online and another is tarjetasanitariaeuropeaonline.com – uses the same colours and font as the web page for the European Commission, and includes the European flag symbol, meaning it is easy for internet users to assume they are using an official channel and to pay for a service which is, in fact, free of charge.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com