Voluntary Taboo: Russians Explain Why They Self-Prohibit Loans

Almost 7.2 million applications were submitted for a complete ban on receiving any loans, which corresponds to 91.5% of all those who took advantage of this opportunity. Why people impose a taboo on their financial capabilities and what circumstances push them to take such a step - in the material "MK".

"I'm spending money that isn't my own"

Olga from Vladimir is 45 years old. The woman has worked as a human resources employee at one of the factories in her hometown all her life. "I am married, but unfortunately, I have no children," she says. "But I have two beloved cats and a dog. I devote all my attention to them."

According to our heroine, until she was about 35, she tried her best to hold on and did not want to take out loans from banks under any circumstances: “I’d rather borrow a few thousand rubles from relatives, friends and acquaintances and pay them back little by little. But people take out loans from banks and then cannot pay them back. How many times have I heard such stories, and with a sad ending. But, as they say, never say never.”

Several years ago, Olga's husband fell seriously ill. And the woman needed a large sum of money for his treatment. The native of Vladimir had 200 thousand rubles in her account. This amount was not enough, and she put out a cry for help: "Misfortunes never come alone. You won't believe it, but my relatives immediately said a categorical "no". What kind of relatives are they? Friends and acquaintances lent me only 100 thousand rubles. After consulting with my husband, I decided to apply for a loan from a bank. Of course, I had to do it through gritted teeth."

Olga was able to get a loan from one of the banks, borrowing 300 thousand rubles from the financial institution. And at first, our heroine managed to find funds to cover the loan every month. Fortunately, the woman had a second apartment, which she inherited from her parents. She rented out the property to visiting students from the Vladimir region. And some "penny" of 15 thousand rubles trickled into Olga's bank card. But a year later, the female students moved out and the income from renting out the apartment died out.

"There was a catastrophic shortage of money. I began to give almost all of my small salary to pay off loans. And my husband and I began to live exclusively on his pension - 25 thousand rubles. It's good that he got better after the operation. And he slowly began to recover," Olga added.

At some point, the woman began to understand that she was counting almost every penny. And again she decided to go to the bank. This time for the second loan in her life: “What else could I do?! I have a sick husband and pets. And I need to feed them all.” Olga took out a loan, this time for 200 thousand rubles, to cover the first one, which she took out for her husband’s treatment. “Surprisingly, I didn’t feel anything special about it. For some reason, it was hard for me to understand that I was spending someone else’s money. And again, things were going well at first, but then my expenses began to grow. And one day I noticed that I was paying off two of my loans, and also spending the loan money on who knows what: clothes I didn’t need, some cat figurines that were gathering dust on the shelf, more kitchen towels,” our heroine complains.

And Olga decided to stop before, in her own words, she went crazy from the money that seemed to be hers, which the bank actually gave her as a loan. The woman realized that it was time to solve the problem in a radical way. "I picked up a calculator and found out that in one month, in addition to payments on two loans, I spent 30 thousand just like that - on all sorts of nonsense." And then, as our heroine noted, heaven probably took pity on her, sending her news about a voluntary restriction on issuing loans: "Literally the next day after this law officially came into force, I went to the "Gosuslugi" website and issued a self-prohibition on issuing a loan."

As Olga noted, she still has six months to pay off two loans. "It seems that this is my character: extravagance coupled with irresponsibility, plus the inability to live within my means. To be honest, until the very end I thought that I would never get out of this credit quagmire, but fortunately, smart people have come up with magical self-prohibitions for such blockheads as me."

"I never knew how to count money"

Angelina, our second heroine, is a native Muscovite. Several years ago, the 33-year-old girl finally separated from her parents and moved into her own apartment, which her relatives gave her: “After graduating, I got a job as a lawyer in one of the large consulting companies. And after paying several salaries, I decided to start furnishing my new home for myself. The first thing I did was take out a loan - for a washing machine. I chose a very expensive one in the store. As a result, they calculated that I would have to pay about 10 thousand rubles a month. And considering that I never knew how to count money, I immediately agreed to everything.”

Everything would be fine, but after some time Angelina decided to get a second higher education. This time in psychology. She did not dream of getting into the budget, only the fee-paying department, and for this she again needed a loan: "First, I asked my friends to lend me money, but they all refused me under various pretexts. There was nothing to do, and I went to the bank, taking out a loan of 300 thousand rubles."

According to the Muscovite, she paid her loans quite regularly for the first few months. But then everything went wrong. “I couldn’t handle the current expenses and payments to the bank. So I started applying to microfinance organizations for small amounts. And off it went: I took money from a microfinance organization and paid it back for a loan from the bank, took and paid it back... At the same time, I bought various types of household appliances on credit, and started renovating. I started going on vacation to the sea once every three months – I want to relax like a human being... The expenses grew, and I couldn’t give up traveling,” the girl says.

At some point, the girl got so caught up in this credit carousel that she learned to forge salary certificates and take out microloans almost every two months. “The debt pile grew, but my life didn’t change much — there were no major purchases. Just expenses. Right down to the special toilet paper that smelled like a Balinese flower.”

Finally, the number of loans and microloans became critical: “I had loans from probably 10 banks and microfinance organizations, many of them had two. The total amount I borrowed exceeded a million. And on top of all this “wealth,” I lost my job, to which I had devoted almost ten years. It turned out that it was not easy to find a suitable place — I left all of them after a couple of months. Either the salary did not suit me, or I did not have a good relationship with my boss, or the team did not quite meet my requirements. On top of everything else, it was then that I broke up with my boyfriend and found myself at rock bottom: without a job, with loans and practically no money.

After consulting with her parents, Angelina returned to her native land and decided to rent out her apartment for 70 thousand rubles a month. This amount was enough to cover several loans, and her father helped her pay off the rest of her debts. But he set a condition - to establish a self-imposed ban on issuing loans: "I am very grateful to my dad for this. At least now I live within my means. I finally found a job. And I am regularly paying off the loans hanging around my neck."

"Banks are different"

Igor, a 29-year-old resident of Irkutsk, works as an IT specialist, loves motorcycles, rock concerts and traveling. He lives alone for now, earns well and prefers to avoid debt. On the contrary, it is usually his friends and acquaintances who try to borrow “five thousand until payday”. However, the man took advantage of the opportunity to put a self-prohibition on loans almost immediately after it was introduced. Friends who learned of his actions were surprised. “Why do you need this?” they asked. “You can’t stand debts.” Indeed, Igor likes to plan all expenses in advance and impulsive purchases are excluded in his case. “The chance of going into a store and “breaking down”, buying the latest iPhone or a trip to the Seychelles, is minimal,” our hero laughs.

Nevertheless, he issued a self-prohibition quite consciously – and for three reasons at once. The first is the case with his grandmother's sister. "Aunt Lyuda received a call supposedly from the bank and was simply scammed using the standard scheme," the man says. The old woman not only sent the scammers all the 600 thousand rubles she had saved over many years, but also managed to take out a loan for 300 thousand rubles and sent this money "by courier." "We contacted the police and filed a report," Igor shared. "But in the summer it will be three years since it happened, and they haven't returned our money, nor have they detained the criminals, nor even the courier who took the money from Aunt Lyuda the last time." Our hero thought that his relative was an elderly person and that this would definitely not happen to him, until one day he caught himself talking to "God knows who" about the need to "renew the health insurance policy." “I almost dictated the text message that came to my phone to the ‘registrar’, after which the criminals would have gained access to my account on ‘Gosuslugi’,” the man said. “I stopped at the last moment.”

The second reason why the Irkutsk resident decided to issue a ban is the vulnerability of all personal data of Russians. "My data is no exception," he says. "Last spring, I suddenly started receiving offers from various microfinance organizations, pawnshops and other organizations with which I had never dealt in my life and, in theory, they should not know my phone number." Igor decided to find out on his own who was sending his personal data to such "questionable companies" and even found it. "A manager at one motorcycle dealership decided to sell his entire customer base, where I was, through third parties," the man said. Igor decided to complain about what was happening to Roskomnadzor. But they told him that "the only grounds for inspections are identified facts of harm." "Well, since calls and text messages from credit offices are not grounds for inspection, no one is going to punish those who trade in personal data," he complained.

The third reason for the self-prohibition is the extremely strange behavior of the banks themselves. Last fall, the man decided to check his credit history. He made inquiries to specialized credit bureaus and was surprised to find out that he was not a “perfect candidate.” The story turned out to be extremely suspicious. “It turns out that I was denied loans by three large banks, but the problem is that I never submitted any applications to them!” our hero is indignant. “I never applied for a loan anywhere. Most likely, the same “gray” companies that make a living by buying up personal data were trying to apply for online loans in my name.” Then the Irkutsk resident began corresponding with the banks so that they would delete the data on his applications. “I’m not a credit phobe, but banks are different,” the man said. “Two banks looked into the situation, sorted it out, apologized, and deleted the information. And the latter stated that the applications were submitted through “marketplaces” and that adjusting my credit history is my problem, can you imagine?!” After that, our hero wanted to minimize the need to interact with such financial organizations and put a complete ban on issuing all loans.

"A Tool for Personal Maturity"

The opportunity to voluntarily set a ban on loans through "Gosuslugi" became available to Russians on March 1. You can apply for a full restriction on receiving loans, or a partial one, by choosing the type of organization (bank or MFO) and the method of application (in the office and online, or only online). However, it is impossible to set a ban on large targeted loans - mortgages, secured car loans, loans for education.

The popularity of this service surprised even the authorities themselves. According to OKB, 7.94 million people used the service in the first month alone. Moreover, 91.5% of people from this group imposed a complete ban on all types of loans.

The main reason for establishing self-prohibitions is security. As investment advisor Yulia Kuznetsova recalled, according to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, in 2024 the number of attempts to apply for loans using stolen personal data increased by more than 30% compared to 2023. In the second half of 2024 alone, over 100 thousand cases of suspicious loan applications were recorded. Against this background, the introduction of self-prohibitions has become an effective protective measure for many Russians against the theft of personal data and loans issued by fraudsters. “Self-prohibitions on applying for loans turned out to be popular because it solves two big problems at once - fear of financial fraudsters and the desire to protect oneself from ill-considered debts,” the expert explained. After a series of high-profile cases of fraud with colossal sums and famous people, people have become more cautious: the ban reduces the risk that someone will apply for a loan in their name without their knowledge. “Many are afraid of falling into debt, especially against the backdrop of growing fraud and financial instability,” says Saida Machavariani, head of the ProFinance agency.

Much more interesting are the psychological reasons for establishing self-prohibitions. “Often, this is not just protection, but a form of self-care,” says physician and neuropsychologist Ekaterina Tur. “Self-prohibition is not an enemy of freedom, but an instrument of personal maturity. A person sort of takes on the role of a caring parent for himself, not allowing the inner “child” to break down, make a mistake, or ruin plans.” A ban on loans is a rigid structure that controls a person’s behavior. Today, the population is becoming more economically literate: most people understand that taking out a loan is not always a rational decision. “By setting self-prohibitions, we try to protect ourselves or avoid temptations,” believes Anastasia Lukina, head of the marketing department at RUDN University. But, according to the expert, self-prohibitions only create the illusion of control and management of one’s life. However, they do not solve the fundamental problem of people who apply for loans – a lack of money and the inability to solve some pressing life problems due to a lack of funds.

Self-prohibition in this case is not a “cure for poverty,” but a kind of psychological barrier “for the good.” According to Ekaterina Tur, it helps maintain financial stability, not fall into emotional consumption, and not seek short-term pleasure at the expense of long-term stability.