A PrivatBank client refuses to settle her debt of 33,995 UAH. What was the court's decision?

PrivatBank is demanding that a woman settle her credit debt amounting to 33,995 hryvnias. However, she refuses to do so because she did not utilize the credit funds. This was stated in the decision of the Frunzensky District Court of Kharkiv, published on February 19, 2025.

On August 25, 2021, the woman personally signed a statement agreeing to the terms and conditions of banking services and confirmed the following conditions: type of credit and amount of credit limit: a revolving credit line of up to 50,000 hryvnias. Due to the aforementioned violations of the credit agreement obligations, and considering the payments made towards the debt, as of July 29, 2024, she has a debt of 33,995 hryvnias, which consists of: 27,619 hryvnias - principal amount owed, and 6,376 hryvnias - overdue interest.

The woman submitted a response to the court regarding the lawsuit, asking for the rejection of the claims. She agreed to the terms and conditions of banking services provided by JSC CB "PrivatBank" by signing the statement dated August 21, 2021. The terms and conditions of banking services are established according to Article 634 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, namely: the public part is set by the bank and posted on the website https://privatbank.ua/terms. This agreement can only be concluded by the client's acceptance of the contract: by signing the statement for joining the relevant section of the service agreement (individual part of the contract or a statement of accession). According to the terms and conditions of banking services provided by JSC CB "PrivatBank," the validity period of the electronic payment tool is indicated on the front side of the card (month and year). The electronic payment tool is valid until the last calendar day of the specified month. As evident from the case materials, the card's validity expired on September 30, 2021. Thus, after September 30, 2021, she did not have the technical ability to use the card, as it had become inactive. Therefore, she believes that the transfer of credit funds on June 28, 2022, to another person in the amount of 27,619 hryvnias could not have been made by her. Upon learning of this fact, the citizen reported the crime to the police, which was entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations on June 29, 2022.

What did the court decide?

The court granted the claim. The woman is to pay JSC CB "PrivatBank" a debt under the credit agreement No. b/n dated August 25, 2021, in the amount of 33,995 hryvnias.

"Considering that the repayment period for the credit expired on the 180th day of default, according to paragraphs 1.5. and 2.1.1.2.12. of the agreement, starting from the 181st day following the breach of obligations by the defendant regarding loan repayment, the parties agreed to accrue interest on the amount of the loan that was not repaid on time, which, according to part 2 of Article 625 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, is established by agreement of the parties at a percentage of the overdue debt amount of: - 60.0% - for the 'Universal' card. Due to the specified violations of the credit agreement obligations and considering the payments made towards the debt, as of July 29, 2024, the defendant has a debt of 33,995 hryvnias. Regarding the defendant's claims about the unauthorized transaction, the plaintiff conducted a corresponding investigation, which established that the transfer of funds from the card was made by creating a payment in Privat-24. The login was performed under her authorization. In this procedure, the client enters their username and password to access Privat-24, creates the necessary payment, enters a key that only they know, and after that, a payment order is sent to the bank, according to which the bank executes the fund transfer. These actions could only have been performed using the defendant's financial phone and other personal information. At the time of the court proceedings, the defendant did not provide any data indicating voluntary repayment of the debt and reasons for the untimely repayment of the debt under the credit agreement voluntarily. Furthermore, the court was not provided with unequivocal, proper, and admissible evidence indicating grounds for exempting the defendant from liability for the breach of obligation, according to Article 617 of the Civil Code of Ukraine," - emphasized the court.