A quarter of a million people applied for credit holidays on the first day of the new rules. Some 150 borrowers felt banks were making it difficult for them to apply and notified the Competition and Consumer Authority.
Until Friday evening, 250-260 thousand people successfully applied for loan holidays. the bank’s customers,” Krzysztof Pietraszkiewicz, president of the Association of Polish Banks, told TVN24. More than 95 percent of them were submitted electronically. This is almost 1/10 of those who are eligible. The interest in immediately using the eight-payment deferral shows how necessary this tool was.
150 signals to the UKKiK
A few days earlier, the chairman of the Competition and Consumer Protection Authority, Tomasz Chrostny, announced that the institution under his control would monitor whether banks would prevent customers from applying, for example, by making the application process more difficult.
In an interview with PAP, Khrostny said that on the first day of the loan holiday, the first signals of possible violations began to come to him - about 150 comments in total.
- Signals relate in particular to electronic application and information from some banks about the negative impact of the use of credit holidays on the future credit rating of consumers. There have also been complaints from consumers about part-time branches, the president of WOKiK said.
The President of the Association of Polish Banks does not consider that there have been any violations
He also stressed that every signal is valuable and encouraged them to keep sending them to the office. “If banks do not change their behavior and continue to mislead consumers, they should consider accusations of violating the collective interests of consumers, which we can start making as early as next week,” he said.
The aforementioned president of the Association of Polish Banks, Krzysztof Pietraszkiewicz, assured on TVN24 that all clients will be able to take advantage of credit holidays without any problems. Referring to the statement by the president of the WOCC that the practice of banks that prevent the use of this solution will be stigmatized, Petrashkevich stressed that “such a practice does not take place” and that banks do not hide loan holiday forms. - I visited the websites of several banks and there is no such problem. As far as I know, more than 95 percent. successfully submitted applications are applications submitted electronically Petrashkevich said..
Will the richest win?
The President of the Association of Polish Banks recalled that his organization assessed the credit holidays in the current formula as unfair, since it “promotes the development of the richest people.” - Wouldn’t it be better to think about how to focus this help on groups of people who need this help in a more difficult situation? Petrashkevich asked.
The economic journalist Maciej Samchik, who participated in the conversation, noted that those with the highest contributions, that is, the de facto richest, will actually receive the most money. However, he drew attention to the fact that never before in history has it been such that mortgages have skyrocketed so quickly (in 6-9 months, the installment price has doubled), and the burden of fighting inflation falls on these people.
- I am opposed to thinking that these people have no right to anything, because they basically bear the burden of raising interest rates, the burden of fighting inflation. Not only do they pay higher bills in stores, they not only pay more for fuel, but they also have twice the installment plan, Samchik said.
Source: Wprost
