Wedding loan: why do Russians marry on credit and what does this mean

In 2015, in St. Petersburg, Dmitry Khramov, a surveyor with a salary of about 50 thousand rubles ($ 750), proposed to his girlfriend and decided to have a good wedding - the first and, as he still hopes, the only one.

On the holiday of the Temples (the surname was changed at his request), he borrowed 700 thousand rubles ($ 10500) from friends, and then took out a loan to repay the debt. “I wanted to celebrate very splendidly, to boo,” he explains. Air force.

“This is an addiction. This is worse than a casino ”

We rented the Le Glamor banquet hall on Voznesensky Prospekt, where they shot a video for the song "Woman, I Don't Dance". Among the 35 guests are the bride's relatives from the Far East. Two photographers, the first for 5 thousand rubles ($ 75), the second for 15 thousand ($ 255), the first shot better. The most expensive was the banquet itself: "How can it be without slides, cake fireworks, boats, bubbles." Fish on the boat. Fireworks. Off-site registration in Pavlovsk, with palaces and horses.

- There are different horses, you could take it for fifteen thousand for an hour, you can take it for five ...

- Did you take over fifteen?

- I'm a fool, but not that much. But there were other nuances. Horse decorations. And the horse itself, and that it must be spurred on specially. Three blows with a whip cost about a thousand rubles. But I snapped next to me ... And the horses themselves were deserved, who did the toughest tricks in the cinema.

These horses were specially brought to Pavlovsk for riding the newlyweds. It cost about 50 thousand rubles - Khramov's monthly salary. “The wedding was perfect in my opinion,” he recalls.

Weekdays began. Khramov moved to a new job with a lower salary, but with growth prospects. And the wife became pregnant after long attempts. She worked in an infectious diseases hospital, so she immediately went on maternity leave. It turned out that she was paid according to a “gray” scheme, and maternity payments were limited to 7000 rubles ($ 105).

After the birth of the child, the company where Khramov worked lost its main customer, and the surveyor was fired. Khramov had to pay 25 thousand a month ($ 375) for renting an apartment, and 40 thousand for a bank loan ($ 600).

Diapers, medicines, paid visits of doctors. “For almost three months I was prostrated, sitting and looking at the wall. Then he spun as best he could. Kalymil, - he recalls. - I came to summer cottages and offered land measurements for the cadastre. When the delay began, I was already quite nervous. So in 2017, fines began, calls to my wife and my story with MFOs ”(microfinance organizations).

First I went to the "large, solid" - for almost a year I took 70 rubles ($ 000) at 1050% per annum. Imi closed his delays. “At first I felt relieved, and then I sat down and thought: damn it, next month the same amount will be needed again,” says Khramov. "I figured out what I have."

I decided to pawn a car - Volkswagen Jetta, which I also bought on credit, but already closed it with money from a “wedding” loan: “I pledged it, and then I realized that this is interest again - consider the same MFI”.

Then Khramov went to "small shops", crediting 5 thousand rubles each. He already paid for renting an apartment and for hot water with microcredits. Each time he was offered more and more loans, regardless of his bad credit history.

“They just say that they are being checked ... I tell them on the phone - you know, my income is small. And they advise - well, you indicate that ninety thousand in the questionnaire. Which they themselves seem to be checking, ”Khramov recalls.

He took all microloans online: an application on the website, a confirmation call - and the money comes to the card.

“This is an addiction. It's worse than a casino. At first I had plans of how I would earn and pay everything, that tomorrow I would go there, earn money and give it to those guys, and the day after tomorrow I would borrow from my parents, ask for a delay from others. And then everything went as it was, and complete tin, ”- says Khramov.

Desperate to make money, he started betting on sports. But this only led to large debts. From April to September 2018, he gave the MFI about 650 thousand rubles ($ 9700): “I tried to pay, nobody canceled the moral burden. But there comes a moment when you understand that you cannot give in any way ”. Calls from MFOs demanding to go and re-borrow were replaced by calls from collectors with shouts and threats in the spirit of: "Tomorrow we will hammer all your colleagues and neighbors."

They called friends. Khramov got a new job (retrained as an IT manager), and they called his new boss “six times every two nights”.

They called colleagues whom Khramov hadn’t even seen: “Recently they called from our branch in Moscow: hello, dude, are you going to pay off your debt? They call me here. Friends see girls in the corridor and say: Dmitry, today we talked to your collector from Krasnodar. Can you make sure that they don't call at least at night? "

“You sit at work and are afraid to leave the office, ashamed. My hands are shaking from this for a month. And I understand people who at this moment are running to re-borrow anywhere. But this is pointless. Only one idea suggests itself - bankruptcy, ”Khramov says.

This idea was given to him by his mother. “For some reason, everyone comes to this when they are already cornered. But it was possible before. Most are hindered by shame. Stupidity prevented me, I thought that I could get out, I thought that I could close it, I just had to strain, ”he recalls.

Khramov has 4 banks and 30 MFOs in his application. The total debt is 2 rubles ($ 254). He is awaiting the court hearing on declaring him bankrupt at the end of November. He does not want to take any more loans: “I don’t want to look even at these signs on the streets. The word "credit" makes me want to get into a fight. "

While we are talking, another debt collector writes to Khramov in the WhatsApp messenger. In his profile he has a photo of the Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, in messages he threatens to send a photo of Khramov's wife on social networks.

The spouse did not tell her about the loans in the MFO until the last. When she found out about her husband’s financial collapse, she packed up and left.

- But we communicate, I try to see the child. It will get better.

- Would you celebrate a wedding like that now?

- Not. But now I wouldn't be celebrating anything at all.

- Will you celebrate the bankruptcy?

- Well, I'll have a beer.

"Hard" and "ashamed"

A wedding loan is one of the most popular consumer loans, while among lawyers it is considered one of the most risky, says Yulia Kombarova, head of Legal Bureau No. 1. But, as a rule, such a loan does not have a separate marking, so it is impossible to calculate exactly how many wedding banquets in Russia were paid for on credit.

Some banks, such as Alfa Bank and Citibank, offer wedding loans as a separate service. Lovers are offered from 50 thousand ($ 750) to 3 million ($ 45000) rubles at 12-25% per annum - depending on the reliability of the borrower, it follows from the ads on the banks' websites.

At a rate of 20% for occupied 300 thousand ($ 450) rubles for a wedding in three years will have to pay another 100 thousand ($ 1500). But this is not the limit. For example, a resident of Yakutia, Lenina Nikolaevna Suzdalova, took in the Asia-Pacific Bank 240 thousand ($ 3600) rubles for a five-year wedding under 34% per annum. In the 2016 year, when, with all the arrears, the debt rose to 600 thousand rubles ($ 9000), the court declared it bankrupt.

It is difficult to know exactly which part of the borrowers can not cope with the debts for the wedding. In bankruptcy cases of individuals, the materials of which lie on the website of the Arbitration Court of Russia, references to loans for the celebration are found. And in each of the 20 law offices in nine regions of Russia, where the BBC Russian Service asked for comments, there were customers who decided to go bankrupt due to problems, including wedding loans.

But they do not want to talk to journalists - most often in the answers with refusal in interviews one encounters the words “hard” and “ashamed”. “No one wants to flaunt such a story, even anonymously,” lawyers shrug their shoulders.

The law on the bankruptcy of individuals earned in Russia since 2015 year. Borrowers spoke of him as a panacea, but in fact the first year only the most desperate came, the lawyer Kombarova recalls.

“One of the reasons that keeps people from going bankrupt is the reaction of neighbors and colleagues. This is not America, where multiple bankruptcy can become president. In the eyes of our society, he is a swindler who took a loan from a bank and did not give it back, ”say Kombarova's colleagues.

According to the United Credit Bureau for 2018 a year, on average, 45 people out of 100 thousands go bankrupt in Russia. After bankruptcy, all bank cards are taken from the former debtor, all accounts are closed, the financial manager is involved in the necessary transactions.

The debtor is left with the only housing, in it - a stove, a refrigerator, pots, a bed and clothes (if there is only a mink coat from warm, they will leave it too). Chickens, pigs and sheep along with the barnyard, if the bankrupt eats them, and does not sell them. Seeds for the garden, firewood and food - about 5000 rubles. Icons and sports awards will not be taken away. They will leave the tools for work if they are cheaper than a million rubles - a laptop if the income is related to typing, or a violin if its owner is a musician.

“They shouted at me:“ Find! Borrow! "

According to Rosstat, more than half of marriages in Russia end in divorce. In 2017, a million marriages had 611 000 breakups.

“At first, everyone thinks that a wedding is once in a lifetime, and they want a big celebration. The groom usually takes on a loan, and the newlyweds hope to close most of it from envelopes with money donated by the guests for the wedding. In practice, no one succeeds, ”says Roman Vinogradov, head of the law firm Vinogradov & Partners in Barnaul. “On average, they get divorced in four years. And the confusion begins with a loan for a wedding. "

With an average salary in the Altai Territory of 20-25 thousand rubles ($ 300- $ 370), the usual wedding loan there is 500 thousand rubles ($ 7500). With this money in Barnaul, you can rent a one-room apartment for three years or open an alcohol store under a franchise.

Such a loan is usually taken for five years, but many couples get divorced before it is fully repaid, and then there are three scenarios, Vinogradov says. If a loan is taken before going to the registry office, it remains on one borrower, and he pays it alone after the divorce. If a loan for a banquet is taken after registration, then both should pay the loan after the divorce.

If the loan is taken before the marriage is registered by one spouse, but is repaid from the money of the other spouse, then the person who paid it has the right to sue the person who issued the loan.

But it so happens that the wedding does not happen at all. In 2016, Oksana Karetskaya (name and surname changed at her request) lived in Perm and after two years of “love at a distance” was going to move to St. Petersburg to her fiancé - to play a wedding. They decided to arrange the celebration on credit. VTB Bank just received a message with an invitation to receive “up to a million money,” says Karetskaya.

“It's not that we planned the entire loan for the wedding, thought to put the remainder on the mortgage, they would give something else, we thought so ...”, she recalls.

They applied for a consumer loan of 900 thousand rubles ($ 13500) with a monthly payment of 25 thousand ($ 375). Signing the paper went Karetskaya, the organization took the future husband. He estimated the wedding at 600 thousand ($ 9000).

“In general, I did not want a magnificent wedding. We had a hundred guests. We looked at the guest house. I have few relatives, but he made many friends. He often told me - Oksan, not enough, I must add. For a banquet ... Here's a photographer ... And I sent him credit money. When you trust a person, you don't check. If we say - show your credit history, then this is somehow not very good. I believed that a person can be trusted. But as my practice has shown - fuck it! ”- she recalls.

Shortly before the wedding, Karetskaya's mother unexpectedly fell ill - oncology. An urgent operation had to be negotiated for money. The day before the operation on her mother's arms, her husband died - a heart. “And at five minutes, my husband at this time all dripped on my brains: Oksan, what's there about the wedding? Oksan, we need to add some money. I say: do you understand that I have no time for this now? ”.

Karetskaya suggested that the groom postpone the wedding and take the deposit from the restaurant. In response, she said, she received a scandal: “Are we going to wait again ?! You don't want to! Yes, you don't care! How could you think to postpone! "

The rest of the money from her account went to the treatment of her mother and the funeral of her stepfather. From the memorial service in Perm, Karetskaya returned to the groom's room in a St. Petersburg communal apartment two weeks before the proposed wedding - and saw an unfamiliar girl in bed.

“I tell him: it's strange, you seem to want a wedding. Show the receipts, please. In response, a scandal began in the spirit of: "Don't you trust me?" I asked for a phone to inquire about the ordered banquet. He didn't. In general, it turned out that if there were preparations, it was not at all for the prices that he had named. He spent the money in the wrong place. He played cards, thrashed somewhere, bought soft drugs. ”

She packed up and left. In Perm, Karetskaya already quit her job, but she hasn’t found a new one in St. Petersburg. In a month she had to pay the bank already 30 thousand rubles ($ 450). Prior to her dismissal, she received 40 thousand per month ($ 600). And after parting with her fiance, she needed to rent a house.

Collectors began to call Karetskaya. In addition, she fell ill and went to the hospital. Friends tried to tell her ex-fiancé about her situation, but he, according to Oksana, dismissed her with the words: “We parted, these are her problems”.

- Where did you meet him?

- In the airplane. Now, it seems to me, when meeting men, I will immediately ask to show my passport.

VTB, as she claims, called every 15 minutes, although according to the law, if the client responded, they could not be bothered for the next three days.

“I tell them that I am in the hospital on an IV, I cannot pay you now,” Karetskaya recalls. - And they say: let them pay for you. I say: there is no one to pay for me. And they: take a microloan. Sell ​​something. They shouted directly at me: “Find! Borrow! ”.

Karetskaya sold the tablet, re-borrowed and paid 20 out of 100 thousand overdue. The calls died down. She found a job, recovered: “Things were just getting better. I am a very responsible person, I have been a client of banks for seven years, I took out loans, but I have never had any delays. I had no plans to go bankrupt at all. I thought I could give everything. "

In the spring of 2017, employees of the St. Petersburg branch of VTB took care of it. “They started calling my mom and my friend, whose phones I hadn't given anywhere. They sent letters without envelopes - so that anyone could read and find out that I was in debt. And in the end, the head of the VTB department of the St. Petersburg branch, a woman of about forty, called me from her mobile, ”Oksana recalls.

“If you don’t pay, they will come to you. You will have problems at work. And in general, 25 thousand is not such a large amount for the peace of mind of your mother. And as I understand it, your mother is already aged, '' Karetskaya retells their conversation in December 2017. - This was the last straw. I got a veil before my eyes, and I just screamed at it ”.

VTB does not believe Karetskaya's story. “We record and carefully analyze telephone conversations with borrowers during the collection phase. VTB checked all calls in this case. The bank did not reveal any violations [of the law]: telephone conversations were conducted no more than once a day and no more than twice a week, ”the bank said. VTB's response does not say anything about calls from a personal mobile phone.

Putting the phone down, Karetskaya called the lawyer, whom she had previously been advised for bankruptcy. And they began to draw up documents.

“To be honest, the procedure is not easy,” admits Karetskaya. - Morally and psychologically. It was difficult to decide to tell everything to a lawyer. It's generally difficult for me to talk about my problems. Mom and family did not know anything - why talk? I’m strong, I can handle it, I don’t take money from my mother ”.

Now Karetskaya has two jobs: on weekdays she is an economist, on weekends she is a salesman. In total, she owes banks about a million rubles ($ 15000). Karetskaya hopes to go bankrupt by April 2019.

“Now, of course, you deny yourself everything, you put off everything to pay for lawyers. But this is all for me now like a breath of fresh air. I wore 30 thousand to the bank every month. Sometimes I carried them, but at home I really had nothing to eat - at all. Friends bought me food, - she says. “Now I have understood one thing - I will never take any more loans in my life”.

“I will only marry a man with an apartment,” adds Oksana. Karetskaya has a young man, he helps her pay rent for an apartment in St. Petersburg. He has a mortgage in Moscow. “Well, let him pay first,” she laughs.

"Russia is a country of catastrophic inequality"

“There is a myth in society about an irresponsible borrower who takes loans and thinks that someone else will give them for him. But when we did research on this topic, we found the opposite. People fall into credit traps, oddly enough, because they become hyperresponsible, ”says Grigory Yudin, Senior Research Fellow at the Higher School of Economics, Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Sociology of Religion at St. Tikhon's Orthodox University for the Humanities.

It is always difficult to determine how much a person needs a thing, many of them are not necessary, but status, says the expert. Sociologists call this conspicuous consumption - “weddings can’t afford” is of this type.

Moreover, Russia is a country of catastrophic inequality, adds Yudin: “It is especially clearly visible between the periphery and the capital, where we come across expensive consumption patterns every day. This inequality cannot be justified by anything, because we do not have a caste system, so people, of course, begin to ask: why on earth? "

Credit turns out to be a way out of this psychologically difficult situation, “when you feel that you are no worse than the other, that you have to, but cannot cope,” the expert continues. “The hardest thing then is to admit that you were wrong. Go to others and say that you have problems. "

“When they cannot pay, the children turn away, they say, mom, decide for yourself”

Often people asking to declare bankrupt started with a loan for a wedding and ended up with microloans to go to the grocery, say lawyers from Credit Bureau # 1. So it happened with a resident of Perm, Larisa Efremova.

“The amount owed is 1 rubles ($ 631),” the court documents indicate. - Spent on current needs, including holding a son's wedding and buying a women's short coat. Model: trapezoid, article SDF-888, grade - first ”. Then - buying drugs, train tickets and paying utility bills. Later, the Treasurer put the first-grade trapeze coat up for auction.

There are many retirees among the bankrupts. “Usually, a loan for a wedding,“ unsecured consumer, ”is taken by parents, often this is their first loan. It is more difficult for future newlyweds to get a loan because of their age, - says the general director of the company “Modern Protection” Leonid Fainberg. “This is the height of impracticality, so there is no reason to expect a rational attitude to servicing such a loan from the borrower.”

“They take it upon themselves, they do not want to spoil the credit history of the children,” Olga Merkurieva, head of OK Bankrupt-Kurgan, agrees with him. - Loans are given to them willingly, because they know that it will be possible to withdraw half of the pension through the bailiffs until the end of their lives. And when they cannot pay, the children turn away, they say, mother, decide for yourself. "

So in the Republic of Mari El, 2016-year-old pensioner with a disability, Lyudmila Shopina, went bankrupt in 71, helping her grandson celebrate a wedding and owing 684 a thousand rubles ($ 10200) to two banks and four MFIs.

Alla Sizonenko, a resident of the same region, a music teacher in the Kolobok kindergarten with a salary of 18 thousand rubles ($ 270), taking a loan for her son's wedding, in the end she owes 64 thousand rubles ($ 960) to the Trust Bank, 26 thousand ($ 390) the GozZaym cooperative, 29 thousand ($ 435) to the Khlynov credit bureau, 393 thousand ($ 5900) to the Russian Standard Bank, 67 thousand ($ 1000) to Sberbank and 20 thousand ($ 300) MFO ExpressMoney.

In 2017, pensioners Grigorievs went bankrupt in Perm (surname has been changed). In 2011, the couple took out a loan for their daughter's wedding. “Well, our daughter, that's why we took care of all the expenses,” says Galina Grigorieva. In 2012 they took out a loan for the wedding of the eldest son: the young had a small child and rent arrears, so the celebration - "How not to play?" - paid by the parents.

In 2015, the daughter-in-law died, and the money of the third loan went to the funeral and guardianship. Then loans to MFIs, delays and calls from collectors began.

“My husband and I both worked and received pensions, but it was still difficult,” Galina complains. - Children do not help us at all, especially those with whom we now live, they are simply disorderly, they do not work, we spend a lot of money on communal services because of them. Children believe that their parents owe them. But we took all loans for them, for their happiness ”.

“I grabbed this money. I was in agony "

Yudin from the Higher School of Economics believes that a possible way to combat credit addiction is “transition to joint responsibility”: “Banks should start measuring the level of the borrower's social capital. For example, before issuing loans for a wedding, check if he has been married for the eighteenth in the last two years. ”

Forcing banks to be attentive to such things, according to a sociologist, may the Central Bank of Russia.

“The same can be done from below by credit cooperatives - there you will not be given money just like that, without knowing you. This is a community that can assess your needs and ask why you need a wedding loan. And not MFOs - the trouble of small towns, ”says Yudin.

But there is a problem: a collective organization of any kind is unprofitable for the authorities, Yudin believes: “This is the main thing that they fear. Do anything, just don't do anything together. It is much easier to get everyone hooked on loans, so that everyone is shaking at their workplace and so that they can be manipulated. "

Kurgan is one of those small towns that Yudin talks about. It's quiet in Kurgan. The first billboard at the entrance to the city promises money on the security of a car. Judging by the posters, Valery Leontyev is expected in February.

A 29-year-old local resident Sergey Krutikov (last name changed at his request) took his first loan in May 2013 - a month before the wedding. True, he quarreled with the bride that day.

He recalls how he sat at work “all in wads of money” (150 thousand rubles - $ 2250) and thought: “Yes, whatever, I’ll buy it now. Life is good. " I bought gifts - to make peace with the bride. Bouquet for 15 thousand rubles ($ 225), gold jewelry. The monthly payment on the loan was 5 rubles ($ 700). Krutikov then worked as a fire brigade operator with a salary of 85-22 thousand rubles ($ 25-330).

The wedding was celebrated, but "not as it seemed." In August we went to Sharm el-Sheikh for 10 days. Before the flight, Krutikov went to BystroDengi, took less than 10 thousand rubles ($ 150) and was late in payment during his vacation. I closed it, but took a credit card from VTB for 33 thousand rubles (about $ 500).

Then came the credit card "Russian Standard" for 60 thousand ($ 900). His wife fell ill, the car had to be repaired, the wedding loan was already overdue, and the bank proposed a 15-year restructuring. His wife worked as a mathematics teacher and moonlighting at Rostelecom. When she found out about the number of debts, she wanted to refinance at another bank, but, according to Krutikov, her mother-in-law forbade her.

“I then lived at work, for eight days on post, took shifts for a friend, took all the 20 thousand I earned to banks,” Krutikov recalls. He worked as a janitor, delivered pizza. I slept two hours a day. Night by car he worked in delivery, and in the morning he took over the daily shift of the fire safety officer in the shopping center. His father died in 2014. Krutikov crashed the car. They had a fight with his wife, and then Krutikov found out that she had another man. In September 2014, on their anniversary, they divorced.

Krutikov started drinking right at work: "I was on the verge of suicide." Due to debts, he sold his father's three-room apartment and took most of the money to banks and MFIs. Then there were already 35 thousand payments per month ($ 525).

“I grabbed this money. I was in agony. You're a man, solve the problem yourself. I always paid while I could. Then I tried to terminate the contracts, but you will not find the ends there. Then the lawyer told me: if you want, take the risk yourself with bankruptcy ”. Krutikov filed for bankruptcy. Four years have passed since the day of the wedding, played on credit.

At this time, debt collectors from all regions of Russia called him. “You don't have to listen to what they say, just by the intonation it is clear that if there is no money tomorrow, they will come and shoot you in the head. And they add, they say, you understand that the owners of the company are people from the 90s, and you understand what money it was all built with and what methods they use. "

Krutikov well remembers the day when he was declared bankrupt. It was March, it was snowing, and he drove to court for almost an hour. In court, he looked sick, “did not understand at all what was happening,” while the judge read out the decision. The financial manager put up for auction his electric kettle for 1000 rubles ($ 15), an Alcatel cell phone for 500 rubles ($ 7,5) and a sofa bed for 3000 rubles ($ 45). They were bought by a friend of Krutikov.

In July 2018, all debts were finally written off from him. Collectors don't call anymore. But marketers of banks and MFOs are calling with new proposals: the last time they were offered under one and a half million, he recalls. But Krutikov tries to live within his means: “Now my earnings are enough for me. I don't want to take any more loans. Only if for an apartment or a very expensive car. God forbid it comes to this ”.

Now Krutikov is a taekwondo trainer, a black belt for which he received at the age of 17. This sport is popular in the Kurgan region. Krutikov bought a car, travels to villages all week and trains children in the evenings. In total, his team has almost 60 people. So far, he cannot register as an individual entrepreneur: the restriction for a year is one of the consequences of physical bankruptcy. On New Year's holidays he wants to go hiking to the Dyatlov pass.

- True, there is no company. Everyone is afraid. And for me something of adrenaline has become a little in my life.

- Wow, you no longer have enough adrenaline?

- Well, but I looked at life. Now I know what kind of wife should be and what not. The one who now lives with my name - this should not be.

This was his second marriage. In the first, the wife cheated on Krutikov with "a person known throughout the country." The second wife a year and a half ago offered to “start everything from scratch”, but the athlete refused. And on the eve of our interview, he broke up with his girlfriend: "In two weeks there was supposed to be a wedding."

Krutikov did not take credits for it.

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