Banks massively connect customers to paid services

In the last month, clients of Russian banks have started to face the problem of hidden connections of paid services and notifications en masse. "Izvestia" analyzed dozens of reviews of Russians in the People's Rating of banks from "Banki.ru", most of which were published at the end of April. Users of the resource complain about the unscrupulous behavior of Alfa-Bank, Gazprombank, Ak Bars Bank and other representatives of the market for non-transparent information in contracts and attempts to profit from the inattention of customers.

Playing for money: scammers began to use schemes with bank shares

The attackers use the branding of large financial organizations

Banks, without customers' consent, start charging fees for paid notifications or privilege packages and shift the responsibility for the consequences to the customer - in response to complaints, market representatives often point to notifications of new services in the form of SMS or push messages. Most users simply do not notice them.

In conditions of slowdown in lending, banks are looking for ways to maintain business profitability through hidden commissions and take advantage of clients' inattention, explained Ivan Uklein, senior director for bank ratings at Expert RA agency.

Players use every opportunity to make money, and the connection of paid services is very effective, added economist Alexei Krichevsky. Most clients simply do not notice the pre-set checkboxes in the contracts about consent to receive paid additional services, as well as do not know about their right to exclude such clauses from the document in principle, added Ivan Uklein.

Read more in an exclusive Izvestia piece:

Unknown tribute: banks massively connect customers to paid services