Contract trap · Loan and credit
Add-ons packed into loan
Paid extras — extended warranty, GAP, 'юридическая помощь', 'телемедицина', SMS-informing, card servicing, credit monitoring — are added to the amount financed by default or via pre-ticked consent, and cancellation is deliberately hard.
- Severity
- Serious
- How often it turns up
- Common
- Holds up?
- Often void
- Clause phrases
- 21
What it looks like in a contract
Redline matches these phrases against your document verbatim. Drafters rarely invent new wording — they copy it, which is why the same sentences turn up across unrelated contracts.
In English-language contracts
- amount financed includes
- optional products
- vehicle service contract
- extended warranty
- GAP waiver
- debt cancellation agreement
- credit monitoring
- you elect to purchase
- cancellation must be in writing
- retention
In Russian-language contracts
- дополнительные услуги
- заявление о предоставлении дополнительных услуг
- юридическая помощь
- телемедицина
- СМС-информирование
- плата за подключение
- сублицензионный договор
- услуга включена в сумму займа
- Заемщик выражает согласие на предоставление
- карта помощи на дорогах
- сертификат на консультационные услуги
Check your own contract
Paste a clause, a page or the whole document. Nothing leaves your browser: the matching runs here, on this page, against the phrases above.
Why it bites
Adds 5-20% to principal financed at the loan rate; cancellation goes through 'retention' scripts; refunds are applied to principal instead of returned; МФО sell RUB 1-3k subscriptions per loan that the borrower never uses.
Is it enforceable where you are
The same clause can be routine in one country and void in another. What follows is what the law says where you are — not advice on your particular contract.
In the US, TILA/Regulation Z governs disclosure and the CFPB polices unfair practices; in the EU, the Consumer Credit Directive and Directive 93/13 apply, and the CJEU has repeatedly struck price and rate clauses that a borrower could not have understood.
United States
Legal if voluntary and disclosed; the FTC CARS Rule was vacated by the Fifth Circuit (Jan 2025); CFPB uses UDAAP (Toyota Motor Credit 2023, Capital One 2012).
- Cited
- CFPB
- FTC
European Union
CCD2 bans pre-ticked boxes and tying; mandatory ancillary services must be in the APRC; unfair-terms review applies (93/13 Annex 1(i)).
- Cited
- 93/13 Annex 1(i)
- CCD2
United Kingdom
CONC 4 and the Consumer Duty; add-ons must be clearly optional; FCA rules ban opt-out selling of add-on insurance (2016).
- Cited
- CONC 4
- FCA
Russia
353-ФЗ ст. 7 ч. 2: «Проставление кредитором отметок о согласии … не допускается»; the cost of every extra must be stated in the application; 30-day right to refuse and get a refund; the lender must send written notice of that right the day after signing; ЦБ РФ fines for навязывание.
- Cited
- 353-ФЗ
- ст. 7 ч. 2
Where this has actually happened
Regulator actions, court rulings and the contracts they were fought over.
- CFPB v. Toyota Motor Credit (Nov 2023): GAP, credit life and service contracts bundled, 'retention hotline' cancellation obstruction; $60M
- CFPB/OCC v. Capital One (July 2012): $210M for deceptive marketing of payment-protection and credit-monitoring add-ons
- Webbankir (RU МФО) publishes paid sublicense offers (e.g. ZdravoTech, 2026) alongside its loan documents
What to do
In order, from the thing that takes a minute to the thing that takes a letter.
- Read the itemization of the amount financed line by line and strike every optional product before signing
- RU: refuse in writing within 30 days (353-ФЗ ст. 7 ч. 2.7) and, if the provider stalls, demand the refund from the lender (ст. 7 ч. 2.10-2.11)
- US/UK/EU: cancel in writing, keep proof, demand pro-rata refund.
Traps that travel with it
Drafters who use one of these usually use several.