A serviceman won back interest charged by microfinance company SlonKredit 38 708 hryvnias and received moral damages

The Khortytskyi District Court of Zaporizhzhia 2 September partially granted the claim of a serviceman against the limited liability company "Slon Credit", which had refused to exempt him from paying interest on five microloans. Preferential terms for mobilized borrowers are provided by law, but the company demanded paper documents with notarization from the soldier, ignoring his qualified electronic signature. As a result, the court ordered the financial institution to return to the man more than 38 thousand hryvnias. The plaintiff, who has been serving under mobilization since 28 February 2022, during 2025 year entered into five consumer loan agreements with the company. As stated in the decision published in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions, all five contracts were fully closed at the time the claim was filed, but the company had already collected significant amounts of interest from the serviceman.

According to the plaintiff's calculations, "Slon Credit" unjustifiably collected from him:

under agreement No.2094532 dated 06.02.2025 (15 000 UAH, active 43 days) - 4 068 UAH in interest;

under agreement No.2178417 dated 22.03.2025 (20 000 UAH, active 12 days) - 6 240 UAH in interest;

under agreement No.2209690 dated 07.04.2025 (32 000 UAH, active 35 days) - 16 560 UAH in interest;

under agreement No.2305867 dated 28.05.2025 (32 000 UAH, active 5 days) - 5 280 UAH in interest;

under agreement No.2542375 dated 14.10.2025 (20 000 UAH, active 10 days) - 3 060 UAH in interest.

In total, the man demanded the return of 35 208 UAH of overpaid interest, as well as inflation losses, three percent per annum, interest for use of another’s money, a penalty of 50% of the awarded sum, and 20 000 UAH in moral damages.

The plaintiff claimed that starting from 21 January 2026 he three times submitted requests to the company for recalculation of the debt, signed with a qualified electronic signature via the "Diia.Sign" app. However, the financial institution refused, citing an internal director's order and demanding paper copies with notarization.

"LLC 'SLON CREDIT' took into account the information you provided about belonging to a protected category," the company's letter No.26-492 dated 03.02.2026 stated.

In its response to the claim, the defendant's representative insisted that photos and scanned copies of documents with an electronic signature do not allow verification of authenticity, and that the company does not have access to state registers to verify a serviceman's status. In addition, the defendant argued that the daily interest rate under the agreements does not exceed 1%, since it is calculated as an average over the entire 360-day loan term.

What the court decided

The court established that the plaintiff provided proof of his status as a serviceman — a copy of the certificate in the form No.5 and a copy of the military ID, according to which he has been on military service since 12 October 2024. Relying on point 15 of article 14 of the Law "On social and legal protection of servicemen and members of their families", the court found that the plaintiff is entitled to benefits, and therefore the interest collected from him are funds acquired by the company without legal basis.

The operative part of the decision provides for:

the recovery from LLC "Slon Credit" in favor of the plaintiff of 35 208 UAH of excessively paid interest on five loan agreements;

the recovery of 3 500 UAH in moral damages;

denial of the remaining claims — declaring contract clauses invalid, recovery of inflation losses, three percent per annum, interest for use of another’s money, and a penalty of 50%.

The court explained that the request to declare void clauses of the agreement invalid is an improper remedy, since a void transaction is invalid by operation of law. Regarding inflation losses and interest per annum, the court noted that the defendant's monetary obligation arises only from the moment the amount is recovered by the court, so there are no grounds to accrue such losses before the judgment is issued.

The court dismissed the request for a penalty of 50%, explaining that article 22 of the Law "On Consumer Rights Protection" regulates only matters of judicial protection, compensation for moral damages, and exemption from court fees, and does not contain a provision for such a penalty.

Concerning moral damages, the court found that the serviceman had to spend additional time defending his rights due to the company's failure to comply with the law, but reduced the claimed amount from 20 000 to 3 500 hryvnias, taking into account the principles of reasonableness and proportionality.

How benefits for servicemen work in other banks

The issue of exempting mobilized persons from paying interest on loans regularly becomes the subject of legal disputes. Preferential terms provide that interest, penalties and fines on loan obligations are not charged to servicemen for the entire period of their service, with the exception of mortgage and auto loans.

To confirm the status, a military ID, an extract from the order, or a certificate in the form No.5 issued no more than a year before the date of application is usually sufficient. Banks require these documents to be updated every 12 months.

Previously, Informator reported that PrivatBank sued a serviceman's wife over a debt of 70 877 hryvnias, and the court partially granted the bank's claim while applying the benefits provided by law to wives of mobilized persons. We also wrote about how preferential credit servicing terms operate at PrivatBank for servicemen and their family members and which documents are required to obtain them.