PrivatBank accrued a debt of 41,587 hryvnias for a card that the client did not activate: court decision

PrivatBank presented the woman with a debt for a loan in the amount of 41,587 hryvnias, although she never used a credit card

PrivatBank obliges the woman to pay credit debt in the amount of 41,587 hryvnias. She does not agree, because she has never used a credit card, and at the time of withdrawal, the card was inactive with a zero balance on the account. This is stated in the decision of the Central City District Court of the city of Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, published on December 29, 2025.

On December 29, 2016, unknown persons committed a number of illegal actions with two bank cards of JSC KB “PrivatBank”, and illegally, without the woman’s knowledge, funds in the amount of 5,973 hryvnias were fraudulently withdrawn. There was no balance on both cards. According to her, she did not receive a credit card. It was opened together with the pension card, without her consent and without determining the credit limit. On January 3, 2017, she turned to the branch of JSC CB PrivatBank with a notification about illegal transactions using cards issued by JSC CB PrivatBank. She was informed that fraudulent transactions were carried out with the cards. One of the cards is a credit card, but she has never used this card, at the time of withdrawal the card was inactive with a zero balance on the account. The bank inexplicably set a credit limit on an inactive credit card. Currently, the bank is systematically charging interest, fines and penalties for a loan that it never issued and never used the loan funds. The bank did not properly conduct an official investigation, and it was not found out who exactly committed the fraudulent actions. Thus, the phone number linked to her bank card was changed by unknown persons, in addition, as a result of fraudulent actions, part of the debt ended up on the account of the card, which in turn is a debit card, a payment card, no credits or overdrafts can be established on it. Other cards were inactive. At the same time, as she believes, the bank uses the application form signed by her when receiving a payment card to deliberately create non-existent debt obligations, charge interest and demand funds from her. Taking into account the above, asks to declare the credit card agreement invalid; recognize the card debt as illegal.

In September 2019, the commercial bank “PrivatBank” joint-stock company applied to the Central City District Court of the city of Kryvyi Rih with a lawsuit against a woman for debt recovery (case No. 216/5499/19). In the justification of the claim, it is stated that she applied to JSC KB “PrivatBank” for the purpose of obtaining banking services, in connection with which she signed a statement dated November 15, 2013, according to which she received a loan in the amount of 3,700 hryvnias in the form of an established credit limit for a card account. She did not properly fulfill her obligations under the agreement, did not make full payment of the received credit funds, interest for the use of credit, penalties and fines provided for in the agreement, as a result of which she incurred a debt to the bank, which as of 08/15/2019 amounts to 41,587 hryvnias. The bank asked the court to recover the specified amount of debt from it.

What was the court’s decision? The woman’s claim against the commercial bank “PrivatBank” joint-stock company for the protection of the rights of consumers of financial services was refused. The claims of the joint-stock company commercial bank “PrivatBank” against it for debt recovery were satisfied in full. In favor of the financial institution, a debt will be collected from her in the amount of 6,797 hryvnias according to contract No. b/n dated 11/15/2013, which consists of: 5,037 hryvnias – debt for the overdue body of the loan, 1,759 hryvnias – debt for interest accrued on the overdue loan in accordance with Art. 625 part 2 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, as well as a court fee in the amount of 314 hryvnias, for a total of 7,111 hryvnias.

“At the time of the disputed transactions, the bank did not have any statements from the client about blocking the cards and legal grounds for the client’s failure to make these payments, and therefore no violations were committed by the bank. The responsibility for carrying out banking operations for transferring funds and paying for services from 12/30/2016 to 01/01/2017 rests entirely with the plaintiff. As it follows from the circumstances of the disputed cases, operations carried out from 12/30/2016 to 01/01/2017, and the plaintiff turned to PrivatBank only on 01/03/2017 regarding the fraudulent actions that took place from 12/30/2016 to 01/01/2017. The court, having carried out a systematic analysis of the legal norms governing disputed legal relations, established the factual circumstances of the case, on which the correct resolution of the dispute depends, came to the conclusion that JSC CB “PrivatBank” has been confirmed by proper and admissible evidence that it contributed to the loss, illegal use of the PIN code or other information, which makes it possible to initiate payment transactions regarding the transfer of funds from its card At the same time, the bank denied the fact that the transfers were not initiated by the plaintiff, but by other unidentified persons, that is, the funds were debited as a result of the fraudulent actions of unidentified persons. In addition, the criminal proceedings for the theft of funds from her card account were closed due to the absence of a criminal offense and her statement on the closure of the criminal proceedings. a criminal case based on the fact of illegal appropriation of funds by unidentified persons using card accounts opened in her name, which is the basis for rejecting the latter’s claim”, the court emphasized.