Russians began to complain more often about additional services imposed by banks: how to detect

Borrowers have to pay for unnecessary insurance, subscriptions to services, and psychological consultations

Compatriots began to more often complain to the regulator about additional services imposed by banks in contracts concluded a year ago or earlier. This was reported by the press service of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The total number of such complaints exceeded 60%. The most common imposed additional services are various insurances, consultations with psychologists, astrologers, lawyers, veterinarians… Why, despite all the efforts of the Bank of Russia, the problem with additional services imposed during lending persists, MK found out from experts.

Nikolai M., a 36-year-old installation engineer who works in a branch of a large federal communications company in Izhevsk, two years ago took out a loan from a bank with a bright blue logo for 250 thousand rubles. The operator persuaded the man to take out “combined” insurance for 28 thousand rubles, which was added to the total loan amount, promising that if he repaid early, the bank would definitely return the entire amount to him. For his convenience, the man took out the loan for three years, but was able to repay it in full in five months. When an Izhevsk resident came to demand money back for unused insurance, it turned out that in his “combined” additional services only 1.7 thousand rubles were loan insurance, and the remaining 26.3 thousand rubles were insurance for traveling abroad, and only for a year – a service that the borrower did not need at all. After long discussions at the bank and the insurance company, the man was unable to return anything other than 1.7 thousand rubles.

“In the first half of this year, commission income of Russian credit institutions reached 1.2 trillion rubles compared to 1 trillion rubles for the same period in 2022,” says Maxim Osadchiy, head of the analytical department of BKF Bank. “This is the second most important source of profit for banks after interest income.” It is clear that banks are fighting with all their might to increase commission income, including by imposing services that are unnecessary for clients and harmful to their wallets.

According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, in 2022, citizens overpaid about 170 billion rubles for imposed insurance services within the framework of credit legal relations. “The cost of imposed services in some cases can be half the cost of the loan,” says Vladimir Kuznetsov, vice-president of the Association of Lawyers for Registration, Liquidation, Bankruptcy and Legal Representation. — The problem continues to persist because banks often put borrowers in a hopeless situation: either unfavorable conditions for a loan rate, or a “favorable” rate when purchasing additional services. That is, in fact, there is no direct coercion of the borrower to purchase services, but there is veiled pressure.”

Meanwhile, in Russia there are rules on an end-to-end “cooling period”, during which the borrower can refuse additional services and return the money. As the Central Bank of the Russian Federation reminded, according to the new law, from January 2024, its duration will increase from 14 to 30 days, and the lender will be obliged to warn the borrower about the purchased additional services and the opportunity to refuse them.

Unfortunately, there are no statistics on the effectiveness of measures such as the “cooling off period”, however, there are examples from practice according to which the borrower’s refusal of additional services entails an appeal to him with a demand for a “discount” for the imposed services. At this stage, based on the leading judicial practice, there are few ways out of this situation: the borrower can agree to imposed services in order to receive a “discount”, then refuse these services and defend his case in court with reference to the positions of the Supreme Court, which are on the side of such borrowers, Kuznetsov said.

True, human rights activists argue that, if desired, the Bank of Russia could completely limit the practice that stupefies naive citizens. As Dmitry Yanin, Chairman of the Board of the International Confederation of Consumer Societies (ConfOP) pointed out, the Central Bank does not propose a ban on related sales, although such a bill was introduced at the initiative of Rospotrebnadzor to the government and the State Duma, but after the first reading it underwent changes: legislators met the banks halfway and left them opportunities for additional profit. “These types of additional services do not provide any benefit to consumers,” says the expert. — So, there are almost no payments for imposed insurances. Under these policies, only 5 kopecks are returned to affected borrowers from every ruble collected!”

But how to detect imposed additional services? “Today, every citizen taking out a loan has the opportunity to look at the list of financial services offered by the bank along with the loan: they are written down in column 15 of the individual terms of the loan agreement, and the borrower is required to sign for them,” notes Associate Professor of the Department of Global Financial Markets and Fintech REU im. Plekhanova Tatyana Belyanchikova. If something was not included in this column and in the calculation of the full cost of the loan, but they started charging a fee, then there is a reason to complain to both the Central Bank and Rospotrebnadzor.