Retail chains are increasingly offering to buy essential goods in installments. Loans from microfinance organizations are often hidden behind this. How do these products work and is it worth using them?

Photo: Alexander Ryumin/TASS

According to Frank Research Group, over the four months of 2016, the number of newly issued loans at retail outlets (point of sale - POS loans) increased by 41% compared to the same period in 2015. The low base effect is having an impact, says FRG CEO Yuri Gribanov: 2015 was a failure, including for this lending segment.

But there is another reason. Gribanov says that the revival of the credit market in retail chains was influenced by “interest-free” installment programs offered by stores in cooperation with banks, and we are not talking about household appliances and electronics, but about inexpensive goods, sometimes essential items - food, shoes, children's toys.

to purchase food products in installments offered For example, on May 26 , the Utkonos chain . Earlier, in February of this year, a similar campaign was launched by VL-Mart, a large supermarket chain in Primorye. Unlike Utkonos, you can even buy alcohol here in installments. Detsky Mir stores offer a “Purchase in Installments” program, which only allows you to buy baby food and diapers.

MFOs instead of banks

Banks are often reluctant to deal with such small loans. Vice President, Director of the Sales Department of Targeted Loans at Renaissance Credit, Sergei Vasiliev, says that he does not see a need in the market for loans for the purchase of essential goods.

But microfinance organizations are actively moving into this niche. According to Andrey Paranich, deputy director of the self-regulatory organization MFO “MiR”, today POS loans are a growing segment of microfinance. “The POS lending model is used by a number of companies that are members of SRO MiR; they provide loans to pay for goods and services in retail chains,” he says.

The installment plan for Utkonos is arranged through loans from the Revo Technologies microfinance organization, which also works with Detsky Mir. to buy food on credit . offers In Vladivostok , a sister retail chain, MFO VL-Finance,

Drink and snack

In the largest chain of supermarkets in the Primorsky Territory, VL-Mart, you can get a loan for food and alcohol without leaving the cash register. Loans are provided by the microfinance company VL-Finance. Residents of the region can get a card with a face value of 3, 5 or 10 thousand rubles in the credit department of the store. “You need to spend the money on the card at once,” says his employee. If there is a balance on the card after the purchase, it will automatically “burn out.” The loan term (installment plan) is from 1 to 3 months. Interest - from 3 to 5% per month depending on the term (approximately from 36 to 60% per annum). If the loan is not repaid, the company’s security service will begin to bother the borrower, explains an employee of the credit department. And if this does not help, the MFO will go to court. According to store employees, the organization does not use the services of third-party collectors.

First Deputy General Director of the Revo Technologies MFO Anton Eremenko explains how installment plans using a loan work: the retail chain provides the MFO with a discount on goods. Its size is equal to the amount of interest that the buyer will pay on the loan. “We make money on discounts,” explains Eremenko. — For example, if a product costs 3 thousand rubles, we pay the retail chain immediately, but for a smaller amount. The buyer will return the same 3 thousand rubles to us, but in parts. The difference is our earnings, from which we must cover our cost of risk, customer service, etc.”

Eremenko emphasizes: in the store this service is not positioned as a purchase on credit, but rather as payment for goods in installments. “This is more of a convenient payment method. We don't think that our customers are people who don't have enough money to buy things. It’s more convenient for many people,” he believes.

It is not yet possible to estimate the volume of this segment of MFO business. Paranich says that microfinance organizations will begin reporting on their activities, in which POS loans will be allocated to a separate category only based on the results of the second quarter of 2016. “From these reports, we will be able to estimate the volume of POS loans, the market share of such loans and track the dynamics of this segment,” Paranich promises.

To take it or not

According to the National Bureau of Credit History (NBKI), the ratio of loans overdue by 90 days to their total volume is 24.8% for MFOs issuing consumer loans, that is, every fourth borrower does not repay the loan. General Director of the First Collection Bureau, Pavel Mikhmel, estimates the level of recovery of such debts at 50% after three months of work by collectors.

Buy boots

ALBA has a new service - “Take now, pay later”. An employee of a store in the Metropolis shopping center in Moscow says that the chain’s promotion has been going on for about a year and is popular. Customers can buy goods from almost any manufacturer in installments for a period of 3 or 6 months without a down payment or overpayment. If the purchase amount is more than 6 thousand rubles, then payments are distributed over three months, if from 12 thousand rubles. - for half a year. Loans are issued by MFO "Revo Technologies". “If the buyer decides to apply for an installment plan, the store employee sends his passport data to the MFO,” says the ALBA store operator. “If the application is approved, the buyer receives a message on their phone indicating the purchase limit.”

If the payment to the microfinance organization is late for one reason or another, buyers may face fines. As Anton Eremenko from Revo Technologies notes, fines and penalties in each specific case are determined individually. The sample contracts on the company’s website really do not contain specific numbers. The amount of a fine in the event of a penalty can only be assessed when concluding an agreement at a retail outlet: the amount in rubles for each case of violation will be indicated there .

Consultant of the Personal Capital consulting group Dmitry Gerasimenko warns that such programs must be treated with great caution. “Microfinance organizations are among the most greedy of interest on loans,” he says. “Perhaps the contract also includes large penalties.”

On the other hand, it’s good when new offers from financial organizations appear on the market, says Alexey Goryaev, director of the NES Master of Finance program, and author of a textbook on financial literacy. “However, a lot depends on how consciously the consumer makes the decision,” he says. “The buyer must repeatedly weigh the pros and cons of using such a tool.”

Play Monopoly

In Detsky Mir stores there is a promotion “Purchase in installments”, which applies to all children's products (except food and hygiene products) worth from 500 to 30 thousand rubles. Loans are also issued by the Revo Technologies microfinance organization for a period of three or six months. You can pay for them through the money transfer system “Golden Crown”, QIWI, “Eleksnet”. The next contribution can also be made in the “personal account” of a microfinance company using a bank card. When applying for an installment plan, you need a passport and a mobile phone: a payment schedule and payment notifications will be sent to it. The loan rate is 0.36% per day, or a little more than 130% per annum, but this rate rather speaks of the relationship between the retail network and the microfinance organization. In practice, buyers pay in several payments the amount indicated on the price tag of the product.

Gerasimenko from Personal Capital calls it “terrible” that essential goods began to be offered on credit, although it was framed as an installment plan. “This indicates the financial distress of our population,” he is sure.

Food on credit: is it worth buying everyday goods in installments?