Overdraft and credit card during the moratorium
Customers with a credit card
Important information on the loan repayment moratorium
Please be informed that the Government of Hungary will extend the moratorium on loans until 30 June 2022 on a means-tested basis. Based on the Government’s decision, a uniform interest rate (11.99%) has been set for the portion of credit card and overdraft facility agreements subject to the moratorium. The decision requires Banks to recalculate the debt accumulated during the moratorium at this interest rate and to settle accounts with customers where necessary (if there is a difference). The Banks are required to prepare the settlement of accounts, to perform the financial settlement where necessary and to inform Customers within 60 days from the date the relevant government decree issued under no. 537/2021. (IX. 15.) took effect. We have informed all of our Customers in writing within the statutory deadline as to the amount settled and any necessary actions on their behalf. Notification took place via the following methods:
• CIB Bank mobile application: for customers who have a CIB Bank mobile application we uploaded the closing letter to the Contracts menu item of the application.
• Postal mail: our customers who do not have a CIB Bank mobile application receive the closing letter in hard copy, via postal mail.
Credit cards are also subject to the loan repayment moratorium, but only up to the credit amount used and interest accrued by midnight on 18 March 2020. If your contract was already subject to the moratorium on 30 December 2021 and you have declared your intention to stay under the moratorium in October, no interest and bank charges will be collected in relation to such amounts, which will have to be repaid after the end of the moratorium period (30.06.2022) or after you have opted out of the moratorium.
Accordingly, the loan repayment moratorium does not cover:
1. credit lines not drawn down by midnight on 18 March
2. credit lines drawn down after midnight on 18 March
For credit cards, amounts covered by the moratorium (i.e. your debt as at midnight on 18 March 2020) have been transferred to separate sub-accounts, so your credit line will be reduced by the amount thus transferred.
You can continue to use your reduced credit line subject to the fees and conditions set out in the applicable list of conditions in effect at the time.
How sub-accounts used for recording debts subject to moratorium work:
1. Principal debt is transferred to a separate sub-account and continues to accrue interest on this sub-account. Your principal debt continues to accrue interest at the monthly borrowing rate1 specified in the List of Conditions relating to the specific product.
2. Interest debt is transferred to a different sub-account, but will no longer accrue interest.
3. Any amount(s) you deposit to your credit card account between the effective date of the moratorium (19 March 2020) and the date of transfer to sub-accounts (as shown in the table below) (hereinafter referred to as “deferred capital”) will be recorded on a third sub-account. This amount is also subject to the moratorium; however, it is not part of the principal debt, but is deducted from the principal debt. Interest will not accrue on this amount during the moratorium period. In addition, this amount will appear as available balance on your credit card account.
On your credit card statement generated at the cut-off date, you can see the amount transferred as a transfer made on one of the above dates, depending on your contractual cut-off date, containing the following information:
• Amount transferred
• Moratorium, 18.03.2020
• Account number of the sub-account created to record principal debt
You can monitor balances continuously:
• We inform our customers under moratorium on a monthly basis, in the first days of the month via SMS on the balances of the sub-accounts under moratorium.
• For further information, please contact our CIB24 customer service call centre at (+36 1) 4 242 242 or a bank teller at one of our branches.
Transfers to sub-accounts took place at the following dates, so these days will appear on your account statement as the date of the above-mentioned transfers:
|
Contractual cut-off date |
Date of transfer to sub-accounts |
|
05.04.2020 |
14.04.2020 |
|
10.04.2020 |
15.04.2020 |
|
15.04.2020 |
16.04.2020 |
|
20.04.2020 |
20.04.2020 |
|
25.04.2020 |
21.04.2020 |
|
30.04.2020 |
22.04.2020 |
If you made an opt-out statement before the date of the transfer to sub-accounts as indicated above, your account will not be covered by the moratorium.
However, if your account is subject to moratorium and you have declared your intention to remain under the moratorium on or before 31 October 2021, the amounts transferred to sub-accounts have been automatically debited to your credit card (or shopping card) account after the moratorium period expired. From that moment on, you have a payment obligation just like before. Upon expiry of the moratorium period, your original credit line was restored and the principal and interest debt transferred to sub-accounts during the moratorium period appears as debt on your credit card account. Then the monthly closing fee (“zárlati díj”) was charged to your credit card account and the interest accrued during the moratorium period was debited to your currently available balance at the cut-off date. You can read more in detail about these debits by scrolling down to the section “What happens if I opt out of the moratorium?”.
What should I do if my credit card is currently subject to the moratorium, but I would like to opt out?
If you have access to CIB Internet Bank, CIB Bank Online or CIB Bank Mobile Application, you can state online that you wish to repay your debt:
• Declare online! (The web page does not work with Internet Explorer, unfortunately. Please use Google Chrome, Edge or Firefox.)
If you do not have an electronic channel, you can make a declaration via our CIB24 customer service call centre calling (+36 1) 4 242 242 by following the operator’s instructions.
If you make an opt-out statement, any amounts earlier transferred to sub-accounts will be transferred back to your credit card (or shopping card) account. You do not need to take any further action.
If you have more than one credit card accounts, you have to indicate your intention to opt-out separately for each of them using one of the options listed.
At 17:00 on the working day following your statement, your original credit line will be restored and the amount subject to moratorium will appear on your credit card account. Please be advised that once you have opted out of the moratorium, you will not be able to re-enter.
Partial or full prepayment of debt during the moratorium:
• You also have the option to partially prepay your debt set aside due to the moratorium in a way that your unpaid debt remains under the moratorium, or you can prepay your debt in full and thus leave the moratorium. Prepayments can be made by wire transfer within the bank or from another bank. Transfers between own accounts is not possible in this case for technical reasons.
• You can find the account number of the sub-account opened for recording principal debt on your statement for April.
• If you pay your debt in full, you will no longer be subject to the moratorium. If, however, the amount of the repayment is less than the total amount of your debt, that portion of your debt will be settled, and the outstanding portion will continue to be subject to the moratorium.
The amount repaid will be booked immediately and appear on your credit card account as available balance.
Once you have opted out, the following options will also be available to you, for which you will have to take the following actions:
- After opting out of the moratorium, you have 30 days to repay your debt in part or in full free of charge. Once the 30-day deadline expires, we will provide you with an 18-month interest-free instalment payment to pay the interests accrued/remaining during the moratorium period, the status of which will be communicated to you monthly via SMS. You are also entitled to request an interest-free repayment period of more than 18 months. You can submit your relevant request in any of our branches. You need to submit the following documents for the assessment of your request:
o income certificate by the NTCA for the last year preceding the submission of the request, or
o pension statement for the last year preceding the submission of the request and
o a statement in the matter of the possibility of takeover of the reference data of persons registered in the Central Credit Information System (CCIS) by reference data providers other than the one uploading the data (to be completed and signed before our administrator in the branch upon submission of the request)
- You may also request our bank to provide an 18-month instalment repayment scheme for paying the portion of the credit line subject to moratorium. If a positive decision is made, the credit card limit will be reduced by such amount and an interest rate of 11.99% will be charged for the repayment period. You need to submit the following documents for the assessment of your request:
o income certificate by the NTCA for the last year preceding the submission of the request, or
o pension statement for the last year preceding the submission of the request and
o a statement in the matter of the possibility of takeover of the reference data of persons registered in the Central Credit Information System (CCIS) by reference data providers other than the one uploading the data (to be completed and signed before our administrator in the branch upon submission of the request)
What happens if I opt out of the moratorium?
A. According to our processes applied from 18 June 2021:
o At 17:00 on the working day following your statement, you exited the moratorium.
o Upon exit, your original credit line was restored: the principal debt, the deferred capital amount and the interest debt subject to moratorium and previously transferred to separate sub-accounts again appeared on your credit card account as debt.
o You have already paid the deferred capital, but, for reasons of accurate calculation of interest, we have considered it as an amount covered by the moratorium and credited it to your credit card account as an overpayment.
o Upon exit, a HUF 250 monthly closing fee was charged to your available balance. In this case, a credit limit overrun might have occurred.
o Where the amount of such overrun is not more than HUF 250, the overrun fee was refunded the next day.
The interests accrued during the moratorium, which were charged in a single sum, were recalculated at the 11.99% interest rate pursuant to Government Decree No. 537/2021. (IX. 15.) on the settlement rules of certain contracts related to the loan repayment moratorium and the difference will be credited to your account.
B. If you indicated your intention to opt-out between 18 June 2021 and 15 September 2021: The interests accrued during the moratorium and resulting from your principal debt were recalculated at the 11.99% interest rate pursuant to Government Decree No. 537/2021. (IX. 15.) on the settlement rules of certain contracts related to the loan repayment moratorium (hereinafter: the Decree) and you have to pay the interests remaining thereafter over 12 months in equal instalments.
You may also repay the accrued interest in instalments or in a single sum within 30 days from your opt-out. You can indicate your request to that effect on our CIB24 telephone customer service at (+36 1) 4 242 242. The amount will be debited against your balance no later than the end of the working day following your notification.
From then on, it will de debited on the monthly anniversary date of your credit card each month against the balance available at that time. If your available balance is less than the amount charged, we will refund the overdraft fee. If the accrued interest amount does not reach HUF 500, a lump sum will be debited on the monthly anniversary date following the opt-out.
When debiting the current monthly instalments, we will send you an SMS notification about the amount of the outstanding debt.
You can always find the amount charged on the statement generated on the current monthly anniversary date.
C. If you indicated your intention to opt-out after 16 September 2021:
The interests accrued during the moratorium and resulting from your principal debt were recalculated at the 11.99% interest rate pursuant to Government Decree No. 537/2021. (IX. 15.) on the settlement rules of certain contracts related to the loan repayment moratorium (hereinafter: the Decree) and you have to pay the interests remaining thereafter over 18 months in equal instalments.
You may also repay the accrued interest in instalments or in a single sum within 30 days from your opt-out. You can indicate your request to that effect on our CIB24 telephone customer service at (+36 1) 4 242 242. The amount will be debited against your balance no later than the end of the working day following your notification.
As we have already mentioned earlier, you are also entitled to request a longer interest-free repayment period, if you would prefer a term longer than 18 months. You may also request the Bank to provide an 18-month instalment repayment scheme for paying the portion of the credit line subject to moratorium.
Should I opt out of the moratorium?
Where your financial situation permits and you are in a position to do so, you should opt out, as interest will continue to accrue on any principal debt subject to the moratorium, so a high amount of interest may accrue by the end of the moratorium period (i.e. by 30 June 2022), which will have to be paid after the expiry of the moratorium.
Should I opt out of the moratorium?
Where your financial situation permits and you are in a position to do so, you should opt out, as interest will continue to accrue on any principal debt subject to the moratorium, so a high amount of interest may accrue by the end of the moratorium period (i.e. by 30 September 2021), which will have to be paid after the expiry of the moratorium.
Legal information
Act LVII of 2020 on transitional rules and epidemiological preparedness related to the termination of the state of emergency, Act CVII of 2020 on transitional measures implemented to stabilise the situation of certain priority social groups and enterprises in financial difficulties and Government Decree No 637/2020. (XII. 22.) on the introduction of special rules on loan repayment moratorium in relation to the state of emergency.
