The most common methods of deceiving consumers when applying for loans are selling goods and services under the guise of insurance products, misleading about the cost of insurance, as well as issuing insurance products that are irrelevant for the client, the Central Bank said in a review.
According to the regulator, the inclusion of goods and services in insurance contracts deprives the consumer of part of the funds upon termination of the contract. For example, a customer bought a life insurance policy and a flash card with a non-periodical issue. The purchase of services was formalized in one contract: the insurance premium was only 3,000 rubles, and the cost of the flash card was 137,000 rubles. Under the loan agreement, the borrower agreed to purchase insurance services for 140,000 rubles. In fact, in case of refusal of insurance or early repayment of the loan, the client could only count on the return of part of the premium (3,000 rubles).
Another problem is the lack of customer information about the service. This is especially true for people with disabilities or illnesses: they are sold insurance, the conditions of which do not apply to this category of consumers.
The Central Bank cited as an example a case when an insurer refused to pay compensation to a beneficiary (wife) upon the death of a husband who bought a life insurance policy upon receiving a consumer credit. The company considered the case not insured, as the client died from a disease identified before the contract was concluded. The payment was due only in case of death from a disease that was first diagnosed during the validity of the insurance or which was reported by the client himself. The client had complaints of pain long before the conclusion of the contract, because of which he took medications and was operated on. At the same time, the agreement was stamped in a typographic way with the terms confirming the absence of diseases. The client himself did not correct the mark, and there were no special fields for entering information with his own hand.
The Central Bank identified cases when the client was convinced that buying insurance would help to get more favorable conditions for the loan, and if it was repaid early, part of the premium could be returned. In reality, citizens are sold at once two policies of different prices, one of which has no effect on the parameters of the loan agreement. And in case of early repayment of the loan, the client receives back part of the funds only under one, cheaper insurance contract.
In the first three months of this year, bank customers sent 13,400 complaints related to consumer lending to the Central Bank, which is 8.5% lower than the same indicator in 2020, follows from the Central Bank data. The imposition of services accounted for 11.4% of all complaints, another 12.3% accounted for complaints from customers who do not agree with the terms of the concluded agreement. A year earlier, these topics accounted for 14.5 and 5.7% of all complaints related to consumer loans.
On June 16, the State Duma adopted in the third reading a law that will allow citizens within 14 days (“cooling period”) to refuse any additional services (not only insurance) imposed when issuing consumer loans. In 2020, a law was passed that made it possible to use the “cooling period” for all borrowers who received consumer loans, regardless of whether they have individual or collective insurance. Previously, the “cooling off period” was only valid for individual insurance contracts.
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