• The Cash Service 4 Home loan company unlawfully charged excessive fees for visits to the homes of consumers who were late in making instalment payments.
• According to the decision of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, Tomasz Chróstny, the aggrieved consumers are entitled to a partial refund of their money.
• Furthermore, the President of the Office imposed the financial penalty in the amount of PLN 510 thousand  on the company.

The President of UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny, issued a decision against the Cash Service 4 Home loan company. He found that the company violated the collective interests of consumers, ordered it to remove the effects of the unfair practices, and imposed a financial penalty.

- The most serious allegation against Cash Service 4 Home concerned the charges for the so-called "automatic visits" that occurred when a consumer was late on an instalment payment. These amounts grossly exceeded - up to even 50 times - the limit of late payments allowed under the Consumer Credit Act, " says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

Under the regulations, the total amount of all costs charged to a consumer for defaulting on a loan cannot be higher than the amount of the maximum interest for late payment (currently 14.5 percent - as of 27 December 2021). During the period, in which the company applied the challenged practice, the maximum level of interest for delay in Poland did not exceed 14% per annum. This means that in case of a six-day delay in payment of a weekly instalment of e.g. PLN 200, the interest for delay should not exceed approx. PLN 0.45, meanwhile, the fees for each automatic visit were dozens of times more. Right after the proceedings were initiated in July 2020, Cash Service 4 Home discontinued this practice.

The President of UOKiK also questioned the company's breach of its obligation to provide consumers with accurate and complete information about past due debt rates and other fees for late payments. Under the regulations, the trader is required to state, both in the loan agreement and in the information form, the current percentage rate of maximum interest for late payment. Meanwhile, Cash Service 4 Home only communicated that this was a variable value and explained what it depended on, therefore failing to fulfil the requirement to provide clear and accurate information in this regard. The last allegation was that the contracts were illegible - written in very small font (approx. 1 mm).

- As a result of Cash Service 4 Home's challenged practices, consumers may have had difficulty reading the contract before signing it. They were also not getting full information on maximum fees for late payments. All of this made it difficult to properly assess the impact of the decision to use the loan company's offer. Moreover, consumers may not have even realised that the company was unlawfully charging them grossly inflated fees for automatic visits. As stated in the issued decision, the company should return this money to the victims - says Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

Any consumer who has been overcharged for an automatic visit may apply for a refund of the amount improperly charged, which is the amount above the legal limit. To do so, the consumer should file a claim with Cash Service 4 Home and provide the account number to which the money should be transferred. Once the decision becomes final and binding, the company must inform all affected persons of this possibility within 3 months. Then it has 60 days from the time they file their claims to return the owed amount.

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection also imposed a fine of PLN 510 thousand on  Cash Service 4 Home. The decision is not final.

Consumer support:

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Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
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