Sberbank customers massively complained about the change in card status. Why did a Sberbank debit card become overdraft How to check a Sberbank debit or overdraft card
One of the banking products is the Visa overdraft card from Sberbank. This is a specific offer of the bank, which makes it possible to simplify the performance of various operations. At the same time, overdraft cards have both supporters and opponents.
What does a Sberbank overdraft card mean?
An overdraft is understood as an overspending of funds stored on the client's card. Translated from English, the word "overdraft" is translated as "over the project" and means a short-term loan that a client of a banking organization can use if necessary.
In fact, an overdraft is a non-purpose loan issued for a short (from several days to several months) period of time. But despite a certain similarity, a loan and an overdraft has many differences:
- overdraft is usually small. Banks, using their own formulas, evaluate the solvency of the client and the frequency of receipt of amounts on the card, calculating the maximum limit amount;
- the initiation of the issuance of an overdraft card often occurs on the part of the bank, while the issuance of a loan is always initiated by the client. Moreover, even if the client has an overdraft card, this does not mean that he is obliged to use it. There are no penalties for non-use of the offered amounts;
- to apply for a loan, it is usually necessary to collect a large number of documents, while an overdraft is often an “attachment” to a regular salary card.
Overdraft is an opportunity to use funds in excess of your own money stored on the client's card. Roughly speaking, this is a kind of short-term loan.
Conditions for granting an overdraft from Sberbank
The service of obtaining a card with an overdraft from Sberbank is provided on certain conditions:
- Each client is given an individual limit that he can count on. Its size depends on the level of income and ranges from 1 to 30 thousand rubles. Accordingly, the greater the amount of wages or other income of the client, the greater the amount of overdraft he can count on;
- interest is charged on the use of the overdraft amount. Their size depends on the currency of the card. For ruble cards they are 18%, for cards opened in dollars or euros - 16%. If the client violates the terms of the contract (in particular, in case of violation of the repayment terms), then the amount of interest may increase, and almost double;
- the loan repayment period is short - no more than two months from the moment you start using the limit. In this case, the accrual of interest begins from the moment the borrowed funds are used.
Given the terms of the provision, it is possible to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of an overdraft.
Service Benefits
Fans highlight the following advantages of the service:
- you can use the funds at any time, without the need to draw up an additional contract;
- money can be used both for non-cash payments and for cash withdrawals through an ATM or at the cash desk;
- repayment of the loan is carried out automatically after the next receipt of funds;
- You can always use an overdraft facility.
The main advantage of an overdraft is that the client has the opportunity to use the service at any time without drawing up additional documents.
Disadvantages of the service
The main disadvantage of an overdraft is the rather high interest charged for using the service. Moreover, there is no grace period for using the service.
Understanding that there is reserve money on the account contributes to falling into a kind of debt bondage, when part of the income received on the card has to be given to the bank in the form of interest on the use of borrowed funds.
In addition, sometimes terminals show not only the client's personal funds, but also the overdraft amount, misleading him.
The expenditure of funds should be carefully controlled so as not to fall into debt bondage.
How to make an overdraft on a Sberbank card
The overdraft service is not activated automatically. To use it, you need to come to the branch of Sberbank and conclude an additional agreement. Most often, customers stop at the overdraft card of Sberbank Visa Classic, which has a low cost of service and an optimal set of services provided.
In order to receive an overdraft card, you must have confirmation that the level of income meets the required minimum.
The supporting documents may be:
- certificate of salary from the place of work;
- an open deposit account with Sberbank;
- an account opened with Sberbank.
If a client receives a salary on a Sberbank card, then, as a rule, the bank itself offers to connect the overdraft service. The constant transfer of funds guarantees that the client will faithfully fulfill the terms of the agreement.
So, the general algorithm for the procedure for issuing an overdraft card from Sberbank is as follows:
- determination of the client's income level;
- calculation of the amount of overdraft that can be offered to the client;
- determination of the interest rate based on the currency of the overdraft;
- determination of the terms during which the loan must be repaid, signing the contract.
At the moment, it is not possible to activate the overdraft service through a personal account in the Sberbank Online system, through the Mobile application, or by calling the operator by phone.
The bank sets the limit based on the amount of the client's income.
Results
An overdraft card from Sberbank is a good way to get the missing amount without asking friends or relatives for help. For bank customers, it will not be difficult to arrange such a service: for example, it can be connected to a salary card.
Sberbank debit cards are displayed in the mobile application as overdraft cards. Changing their status is a “technical necessity”, that is, you cannot spend more money on such cards than they have, the bank said
The message that Sberbank debit cards did not become overdraft, Sberbank distributed after numerous requests from customers. “We receive a lot of questions about the fact that we have changed the terms of service for debit cards and all cards have become overdraft,” Sberbank said in a mobile application. As clarified in Sberbank, only the client himself, and not the bank, can set an overdraft on the card.
At the same time, it was noted in the message that debit cards were always displayed as overdraft cards in the Sberbank Online mobile application. “This is a technical necessity for the correct work with payments and transfers,” Sberbank clarified for customers, adding that the bank is already thinking “how to fix this.”
The message that the terms of service have not changed is also on the Sberbank hotline. “The status of the overdraft card is necessary for the correct operation of the mobile application and does not imply credit obligations or debts,” the answering machine in the bank card section reassures customers.
The terms of service for Sberbank debit cards provide for two types of cards - debit cards proper, which are used "to make debit transactions" and debit cards with an overdraft. With overdraft cards, according to the conditions, it is possible to perform “operations within the spending limit, including at the expense of credit funds (overdraft) provided by the bank to the client in case of insufficient or no funds on the card account.” According to the bank's tariffs for debit cards, an overdraft is provided only for cards of the Visa Infinite type, the annual maintenance of which costs 30,000 rubles a year. The overdraft fee for these cards is 20% per annum, in case of late repayment of overdraft debt or use of funds in excess of the limit, the rate increases to 40%.
The press service of Sberbank clarified that there were no changes in the status of debit cards. “No changes have been made to the conditions for servicing cards. No debit card loans are possible, although it may be displayed in Sberbank Online as "overdraft". In the Sberbank Online mobile application, cards are displayed as overdraft cards, which is necessary for the application to work correctly with payments and transfers.
On the Sberbank hotline, the correspondent was told that Sberbank debit cards are issued as overdraft cards, however, an overdraft is not connected to them. “The card may be displayed as an overdraft card, but it cannot be used,” the call center operator said.
At the end of last week, on the VKontakte page of Sberbank clients, as well as on the Banki.ru forum, client complaints appeared about changing the terms of service for debit cards due to the fact that "all debit cards have become overdraft."
How Debit Cards Suddenly Became Overdrafted
On September 11, Sberbank began to receive massive questions from customers about transferring cards to overdraft status without their knowledge. People demanded to explain where the opportunity to go negative on the card came from and why a commission was charged from overdraft funds. In the morning, messages about the “fraud of the century” are circulating on the Internet, and Sberbank has already stated that all “this is not true” - only clients themselves can set up an overdraft. Read more in the Realnoe Vremya material.
Loan from where they did not expect
On Monday morning, Sberbank customers staged a panic on the Internet. On Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte and Instagram (plus a WhatsApp mailing list), a lot of messages appeared, the essence of which was as follows. Sberbank, without the consent of the clients themselves, transferred their debit cards to overdraft status. The same message was circulating on social networks: “Friends! If you don't already know, take a look! @Sberbank committed the fraud of the century yesterday.”
Apparently, the author of the message is a certain Boris Litvinenko. He published the post on his Facebook page, the publication immediately “shot” (at the time of delivery of this material, it was shared more than 270 times).
If you carry out transactions with money that has just been transferred to the card, “then you will also be charged interest,” Litvinenko argued. Photo pokredit.ru
If you carry out transactions with money that has just been transferred to the card, “then you will also be charged interest,” Litvinenko argued. “Bank employees explain it this way: this amount has only nominally been credited to your account, but has not yet reached your personal account, so you, in fact, borrow this money from the bank,” he wrote.
“Everything is fine in this story,” the author summed up, “and the violation of the contract on such a large scale, and the failure to notify customers about forced lending (we all remember that pensions and scholarships come to these cards), and the inability to change the status of the card online. Ostap Bender is resting.
A lot of people on social networks soon began to report that their cards were also transferred to overdraft status. Some of them claimed to have encountered this before and assumed that it was a system error. “This is a bug in their [Sberbank] IT, it exists. This is not a transfer of cards to overdraft by default,” one Facebook user wrote.
Themselves, and only themselves
Due to the hype, Sberbank had to come up with clarifications. On its official page on VKontakte, the bank reported that the mass transfer of cards to overdraft status is "not true." “You can't spend more money on a debit card than you have. The exception is technical debt, on which Sberbank does not charge interest. Overdraft can only be authorized by you, and not by the bank,” the message says.
It also stated that in the mobile application, some cards were always displayed as overdraft cards in order to work correctly with payments and transfers.
A certain organization "Public Consumer Initiative" plans to file a lawsuit against Sberbank "in defense of an indefinite circle of consumers." Photo getyourcredit.ru
A few hours later, on the same VKontakte page, a link appeared to a material detailing “is it possible to go into negative territory on a debit card.”
It says that the bank's customers are dealing with a "very different story", namely a technical overdraft. It can be formed, for example, when making purchases abroad with an unstable exchange rate or when transferring funds just transferred to the card to another account, the material explains (“the money is already displayed on the card, but does not have time to be credited to the account, and you go to virtual minus). “Such cases are not very pleasant for clients, and now we are working hard to prevent them altogether,” the publication says.
At the same time, it already says that the bank stopped charging commissions for technical overs only from September 1, before that they really were - “as a rule, these were amounts of several rubles.”
At the same time, a certain organization "Public Consumer Initiative" plans to file a lawsuit against Sberbank "in defense of an indefinite circle of consumers." “Among the claims are the termination of the illegal actions of the bank and the publication by it of information about the violations committed. It is planned to involve representatives of Rospotrebnadzor in the case,” reads a message received by the editors of Realnoe Vremya.
Artem Malyutin
reference
Overdraft cards work like regular debit cards and credit cards at the same time. If the balance on the card is positive, then the client uses the funds as with a regular card. But an overdraft allows you to have a negative balance. As a rule, significant interest is charged on funds spent in excess of the balance.
Relationships with banking structures have firmly entered the life of every person. We use lending programs, open deposit accounts, pay utility bills, receive wages on cards. Banking services greatly facilitate daily tasks and provide citizens with the opportunity to use new banking products.
What does overdraft card mean?
To understand what the profitability of a banking product is, you should study the general concept of the term "overdraft", what this service is.
Overdraft - short-term lending provided to regular customers of the bank on certain conditions, which are preliminarily agreed with the borrower. The funds are transferred by the bank to the client's current account. In the event of unplanned financial expenses, when the amount of money in the account is not enough, the borrower has the right to use credit funds without visiting the bank office and signing loan agreements. At the same time, the debt should be paid after the expiration of the grace period (term), which is set individually for each applicant. As a rule, such a credit system works flawlessly, because overdraft is provided only to reliable and trusted clients.
Sberbank overdraft card: what is it?
Sberbank of Russia is the largest retail bank in the Russian Federation providing banking services to individuals and legal entities. What does a Sberbank overdraft card mean? Having an open current account, the client has the opportunity to use the bank's funds after they have spent their own. For the use of money, the borrower pays an interest rate calculated on the amount of credit funds. As a rule, a short period of time is allocated for debt repayment (from 30 to 90 days). An overdraft card is opened for a maximum of 1 year, while having a credit history with Sberbank is not a prerequisite for registration. Overdraft lending is carried out on the condition that the borrower has a high level of solvency and a stable financial position.
Terms of registration and requirements for the borrower
The amount of the overdraft limit depends on the receipt of funds on the client's account for the last 3 months. The Bank has the right to recalculate the allowable loan amount on a monthly basis and independently reduce or increase the limit. The amount of the limit may be affected by the cash flow on the client's accounts opened with other banks. An overdraft card can be issued to legal entities that are corporate clients of Sberbank, as well as private clients, holders of debit cards (salary, pension and others, to which funds are systematically received). An application for connecting the overdraft service is considered within 8 days from the date of submission. For entrepreneurs with a stable business, there is an opportunity to issue an "Express Overdraft" on simplified conditions for considering an application.
The difference between an overdraft card and a debit and credit card
Despite the external similarity, there are a number of distinctive features by which one can judge how a debit card differs from an overdraft card, and also what is the difference between a credit card and an overdraft:
- According to the terms of registration, the debit card is intended for use only with your own money, without the possibility of a negative balance. The holder cannot spend more money than received on his account (salary, pension, social benefits, stipend).
- A credit card, unlike an overdraft, has a grace period during which the borrower can use credit funds absolutely free of charge (usually 55 days). The overdraft interest rate is charged immediately after the withdrawal of the borrowed money.
- A debit overdraft card provides for cash withdrawal without commission, which is possible for a credit card only with a cashless payment. There are no restrictions on debit cards for non-cash payments (payment of taxes, fines, utility bills).
- The overdraft card of Sberbank, the limit of which can reach 17 million rubles for large entrepreneurs and no more than 30,000 rubles for individuals, has a fixed debt repayment period, while credit card debt can be repaid in installments, paying only interest. Overdraft repayment occurs by automatic withdrawal of the amount of debt from the client's account. You must make your own credit card payments.
Documents required for registration of an overdraft by legal entities
Getting additional financing from Sberbank in the form of an overdraft card is not so easy. The Bank provides loans to verified clients who have a stable financial position and correspond to the status of a decent payer. To open an overdraft account, legal entities must provide a voluminous package of documents:
- an application for a loan;
- applicant's profile;
- borrower's passport;
- company registration certificate;
- copies of constituent and statutory documents confirming the legal capacity of the client;
- copies of the charter of the enterprise;
- documents confirming the cash flow of the enterprise;
- latest financial statements.
The Bank has the right to request additional information to verify the financial situation of the client and his solvency. The application is considered by the bank from 3 to 8 days, while the service itself is provided to the borrower after at least 3 months, during which the bank checks the cash receipts to the client's account and calculates the maximum loan limit. When all the formalities are completed, credit funds will be credited to the client's current account, which means that the Sberbank overdraft card has been activated.
Card for private clients
Not only large entrepreneurs, but also individuals who are bank card holders can apply for a short-term loan at Sberbank. What does an overdraft card mean for private clients? The difference when applying for a loan is the amount of the cash limit. The Bank can lend money to participants in salary projects and pensioners in an amount not exceeding 30,000 rubles. To apply for an overdraft by individuals, it is not required to provide a voluminous package of documents, the borrower must provide a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation and an application. Sometimes the bank requires a second identity document (military ID, driver's license), as well as a certificate of income.
How to pay off debt
There are two ways to pay off your overdraft debt:
- Periodically (every month), the full amount of money necessary to repay the loan, together with accrued interest (from 18% per annum in Russian rubles), is debited from the borrower's account.
- Partial repayment of the debt, depending on the financial condition of the borrower. The client repays the amount of debt for each used tranche by automatically debiting the required amount from the account.
If the limit is exceeded, the interest rate on the loan may be increased at the discretion of the bank up to 36% per annum. In addition, for connecting the service to legal entities, an additional commission is charged in the amount of 7,500 to 50,000 rubles (fixed rate - 1.2% of the established limit).
How to disable the overdraft service?
For many customers, the bank connects the overdraft service in the process of issuing any debit card. As a result, the overdraft card of Sberbank becomes available to the holder for use. What is it and how to refuse an unplanned loan?
As a rule, it is impossible to disable the service after signing the contract. However, you can try to avoid a negative balance on the card, thereby not using credit funds. You can also set a zero overdraft limit when applying for a debit card, to which the short-term lending service is automatically connected. The bank does not have the right to increase the overdraft amount without prior agreement with the client. An overdraft card is not valid after 1 year from the date of issue.
Customers massively complained about Sberbank due to the change in the status of debit cards to overdraft ones. The bank initially denied the changes, but then admitted the problem and explained the situation.
Users in social networks in bulk complain that in the Sberbank Online application their status has changed to overdraft. The change took place without the knowledge of customers, who fear that they will have to pay additional fees due to the change in card status. Some users considered the incident the "scam of the century", accusing the bank of violating the terms of the contract.
However, as the press service of the bank explained to DK.RU, no changes were made to the conditions for servicing cards:
Some types of cards are indeed considered overdraft cards, since it was previously possible to connect an overdraft to them as a separate service, but now it is not provided. In the Sberbank Online mobile application, the card type is specified correctly, which is necessary for the application to work correctly with payments and transfers. The status of cards from debit to overdraft did not change, probably, some users of Sberbank Online have just now paid attention to this. No fees were charged for changing the status of the card, since the status of the cards did not change.
However, as noted by the portal Roem.ru, the mass transition of credit cards from one category to another has begun recently - this is indicated by a large number of users. In addition, some of the bank's clients claim in the comments that they received penalties and write-offs based on the results of a "technical overdraft", which clearly contradicts what the bank's representatives say.
Sberbank claims that a technical overdraft is never very large, and from September 1, they stopped taking a commission for it. “Techover” can occur, for example, when paying with a card abroad with an unstable ruble exchange rate, withdrawing money immediately after crediting, and if a store makes a mistake in debiting money. In order not to confuse customers, the bank promised to replace the description of cards in Sberbank Online until the end September - all debit cards will be displayed as debit cards.
The head of Sberbank German Gref on September 12 called the story with overdraft cards "fake from beginning to end." “This is an obvious fake, for some reason it is diligently promoted,” said is he.
Overdraft is a form of short-term lending: if there is a shortage of funds in the current account, the bank automatically provides the client with a loan for the required amount within a certain limit. When using an overdraft, the bank may introduce a grace period during which no interest will be charged for the use of borrowed money.