A knot will form: Russians have become three times more likely to refuse purchased insurance

Russians have become much more likely to return purchased insurance during the cooling-off period. In the first half of 2026, citizens refused more than 934 thousand policies, which is almost three times more than in the same period last year, according to the Central Bank. Customers return useless insurance, which is sold along with loans, tickets and other goods. In some cases, the cost of the policy may eat into the benefits of a lower loan rate. After signing the contract, people begin to understand the conditions and refuse unnecessary services. How to save on insurance when applying for a loan — in the "Izvestia" material.

Which insurance policies are most often refunded

The number of insurance refunds during the cooling-off period for the first half of the year exceeded 934 thousand, according to the Central Bank's data, which was studied by "Izvestia". The Russians got back 27 billion rubles, which means the average cost of such policies reached about 29 thousand rubles.

In Russia, there is a cooling-off period for most types of voluntary insurance. During this period, the consumer can cancel the purchased policy if he realizes that he does not need it, and return the money paid in full. The cooling—off period is 30 days for credit and life insurance, and 14 days for other types of voluntary insurance.

Most often, Russians refused insurance against accidents and diseases — 627 thousand such policies were returned in the first half of the year, according to the Central Bank. More than half of them accounted for passenger insurance.

In transport insurance, one of the key reasons for mass refusals was the automatically set marks when buying tickets, said Maxim Gmyrya, Chairman of the Insurance Committee of the Association of Exporters and Importers. Buyers may not notice that insurance is included in the price of an air ticket or train ticket, and after payment they will discover an additional service and apply for termination of the contract.

At the same time, accident insurance policies are often sold not only to passengers, but also to borrowers, Maxim Gmyrya clarified. Formally, such insurance is voluntary, but in practice it is often presented as a condition for obtaining a loan at a favorable rate.

Another 109 thousand. since the Russians refused voluntary property insurance, it follows from the data of the Central Bank. In this case, we are not talking about housing and cars — these are mainly insurance for equipment and things. Such policies can also be sold as an additional service when purchasing goods.

Voluntary life insurance was also included in the top three most frequently returned products — Russians refused such policies almost 111 thousand times. It was mainly about accumulative, credit and risky life insurance. These programs either allow you to accumulate savings and receive insurance coverage at the same time, or cover certain risks, including those related to a loan.

Such policies were the most expensive. For example, the average cost of refunded cumulative life insurance coverage exceeded 230 thousand rubles. ""Representatives of Rosgosstrakh and Sberbank Life Insurance" told "Izvestia" that they do not record an increase in the number of refusals from policies. At the same time, most of the requested market participants did not respond to the editorial board's questions.

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Why are Russians abandoning policies en masse?

During the year, the number of complaints related to the imposition of additional services when issuing loans and difficulties in refunding funds for such products increased 2.1 times. In the first half of 2026, the number of such requests reached 2.8 thousand, according to the Central Bank.

The insurance premium can be huge — for example, individual banks overestimated the cost of such policies by 25 times, "Izvestia" wrote earlier.

People do not buy insurance voluntarily, but under pressure when lending — they are presented as a prerequisite for loan approval or a significant rate reduction, said Natalia Bogomolova, senior director of NRA Ratings of financial institutions. As a result, the borrower may agree to the policy at the time of registration, and after examining the documents, decide that the additional costs are not justified. That is, even a lower loan rate does not cover insurance costs.

However, canceling a policy does not always mean savings, warned Freedom Global analyst Vladimir Chernov. In some cases, it is possible to reduce the total overpayment if you replace the policy of an insurer affiliated with the bank with a cheaper offer from another company.

Banks are required to accept policies from any insurers that meet the established requirements, even if they do not pay a commission to the credit institution, the All-Russian Union of Insurers (VSS) reported earlier. Russians can bring insurance from such companies to the bank to avoid additional costs. However, so far the union does not see that citizens are massively using this opportunity.

The number of policy cancellations may also increase due to the development of online insurance products that are integrated into various non-insurance services and services, the BCC noted. It may be easier for the client to first apply for protection along with the service, receive additional bonuses for this, and then abandon it during the cooling period.

The regulator pays special attention to remote sales. The Bank of Russia has identified cases when a client, by providing a confirmation code from an SMS, simultaneously agreed to insurance services that he did not suspect anything about, the press service of the Central Bank reported. At the same time, the employee of the financial institution did not inform the client about the availability of the policy.

In addition, the regulator revealed the practice of selling long-term life insurance under the guise of a deposit, deposit or savings account with an increased interest rate in an insurance shell. In such cases, consumers might not be informed about important product features: the lack of a guarantee of profitability, the inability to withdraw money ahead of schedule, the need to make additional contributions, and other conditions. This may also be the reason for the subsequent cancellation of insurance.

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How the authorities deal with useless insurance

To solve the problem of insurance imposition, a number of laws and regulations were adopted with the support of the Bank of Russia, the press service of the Central Bank reported. In particular, starting from September 1, 2025, in accordance with the law "On Consumer Rights Protection", sellers are prohibited from automatically marking the customer's consent to additional services.

Now the written consent must be issued as a separate document or a separate column, which the buyer fills out independently. Previously, automatic approvals for credit insurance, insurance for people traveling abroad, hard hats, accident and disease insurance, and other products were often applied for when applying for a loan, card, trip, or car purchase.

—The Bank of Russia monitors such practices and takes measures to eliminate them," the Central Bank's press service stressed.

The next step should be to improve the quality of the policies themselves. To this end, the BCC, together with the Central Bank, has developed internal standards that will enter into force in October 2026 and apply to consumer and mortgage credit insurance.

The standards are aimed at increasing the share of insurance payments, reducing the number of unjustified refusals to recognize an insured event and reducing the number of cases of insurance product imposition when applying for a consumer loan or mortgage, the press service of the Central Bank explained.

The task is not only to reduce the number of insurance policies imposed, but also to ensure that the client receives real insurance coverage in cases where an event stipulated in the contract occurs, the BCC emphasized.

The Central Bank will evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of the new standards. The regulator expects that their application will lead to a decrease in the share of refusals from credit insurance products. However, if the situation in the insurance market does not improve, additional regulation may be introduced, which will consolidate strict requirements for such products at the level of the law.