The Bank of Portugal issued an alert to strengthen consumer protection, after DECO received a growing number of support requests related to entities that promised to help with the renegotiation or regularization of debts. The regulator recalled that credit intermediaries are not authorized to receive from consumers any amounts intended for the payment of credit installments, amortizations, or other amounts related to the execution of credit contracts.
According to the statement, there are different rules depending on the category of intermediary. Tied credit intermediaries and ancillary credit intermediaries cannot charge consumers any amount for their services, as their remuneration is exclusively provided by the credit institutions. Only non-tied credit intermediaries may charge remuneration directly to consumers, but this amount must correspond exclusively to payment for intermediation services and must be expressly stated in the contract.
In recent months, DECO has monitored several situations involving consumers who handed over money to intermediary entities believing that these would proceed with the payment of installments to creditors. However, these amounts never reached the creditors, resulting in accumulation of overdue installments, charging of default interest, registration of default with financial institutions, and worsening of over-indebtedness.
The Bank of Portugal recommends that consumers confirm whether the entity is registered as a credit intermediary, verify the category in which it operates, know the service costs in advance, and never hand over money for payment of installments or other amounts due to creditors. If in doubt, it is advisable to request all clarifications in writing and keep all documentation related to the process.
