Borrowers have reservations about granting credit holidays by banks. The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) received about 150 signals on this matter on Friday. The reservations concern, inter alia, electronic submission of applications or information by banks about a decrease in future creditworthiness. The President of the Office, Tomasz Chróstny, said that if banks do not change their behavior, “they must take into account allegations of infringement of collective consumer interests”.
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On Friday, July 29, the law on crowdfunding for business ventures and assistance to borrowers entered into force, introducing credit holidays. This is the possibility of suspending the loan installment repayment for a maximum of 8 months this and next year. The suspended installments will pass at the end of the repayment period, thus the loan period will be extended by the number of months you took the loan holidays.
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Credit holidays – terms and conditions. From when to submit applications? For whom?
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Friday was the first day when applications for statutory credit holidays started. On that day, about 150 signals from consumers in this case were sent to UOKiK. – Signals relate to, inter alia, electronic submission of the application and information by some banks about the negative impact of taking advantage of credit holidays on the future assessment of consumers’ creditworthiness. There were also complaints from consumers about the short opening hours of branches – Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK informed the Polish Press Agency.
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Banks under the scrutiny of the President of UOKiK
He added that all complaints as part of the ongoing explanatory proceedings will be thoroughly analyzed by UOKiK. He also emphasized that each signal is valuable and encouraged them to continue sending them to the office. – If banks do not change their behavior and continue to mislead consumers, they must take into account the allegations of violation of collective consumer interests, which we may start to raise in the coming week – said Chróstny.
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Are you going to take advantage of credit holidays? We are waiting for your information
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On Tuesday the office of Competition and Consumer Protection announced that will examine how banks inform customers about credit holidays and how they grant them. In the opinion of UOKiK, the requirement to submit several applications, e.g. separately for each installment or each quarter, raises a reservation.
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As stated, 16 banks that service PLN mortgage loans were under the microscope: Alior Bank, Bank Handlowy in Warsaw, Bank Millennium, Bank Ochrony Środowiska, Bank Pocztowy, Bank Polska Kasa Opieki, Bank Polskiej Spółdzielczości (BPS Group), BNP Paribas Bank Polska, Credit Agricole Bank Polska, ING Bank Śląski, mBank, Pekao Bank Hipoteczny, PKO Bank Hipoteczny, Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski, Santander Bank Polska, SG Bank.
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As explained by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, if irregularities are detected, banks may be charged with infringing collective consumer interests. There are penalties for this of up to 10 percent. annual turnover.
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photo-source">Main photo source: mat. sponsored
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