Can I withdraw from a loan agreement after signing it?

With a consumer loan you have 14 days to withdraw from the agreement without giving a reason - this follows from Art. 53 of the Polish Consumer Credit Act. You bear no costs apart from interest for the period in which you had the money. The deadline runs from the day the agreement is concluded, and the statement must be made in writing and sent in time - the date of posting counts. You repay the capital within 30 days of submitting the statement at the latest.

How do monthly fees affect a loan's APR?

More than it looks. A compulsory PLN 15 monthly fee on a PLN 50,000 loan at 9% over 96 instalments raises the APR from 9.38% to 10.01%, i.e. by 0.63 percentage points, and the total cost of the loan from PLN 20,320.98 to PLN 21,760.98. The fees alone come to PLN 1,440. If the fee is a condition of getting the loan on the terms offered, it must be included in the APR (RRSO).

What must a consumer loan agreement contain?

The list of compulsory elements is set out in Art. 30 of the Polish Consumer Credit Act. They include: the details of the parties, the type of loan, the term of the agreement, the total amount of the loan, the dates and method of payout, the interest rate and the conditions for changing it, the APR and the total amount payable together with the assumptions used to calculate them, the rules and dates of repayment, information on other costs, the consequences of missed payments, the right of withdrawal and the rules for early repayment. Missing required elements can lead to the free credit sanction.

How much of the arrangement fee will I get back on early repayment?

A part proportional to the unused loan term. With a PLN 2,500 fee and repayment after 24 of 96 instalments, the proportional refund is PLN 1,875. The legal basis is Art. 49 of the Polish Consumer Credit Act, and the Court of Justice of the EU confirmed in judgment C-383/18 that all costs of the loan are subject to the reduction, not just interest.

Loans

Loan agreement: 9 places to look before you sign

Nobody reads loan agreements, because they run to twenty pages and are written so that nobody will read them. You do not have to read everything - nine places are enough. We show where to find them and what missing each one costs: a "small" PLN 15 monthly fee comes to PLN 1,440 and 0.63 percentage points of APR.

11 min read · 9 September 2026 · Piotr Litwa, KredytPartner

The good news: the law does half the work for you

A consumer loan agreement cannot say just anything. Art. 30 of the Polish Consumer Credit Act of 12 May 2011 lists the elements that must be in it - including the total amount of the loan, the APR (RRSO), the total amount payable, the rules for changing the interest rate, information on all other costs, the consequences of missed payments, the right of withdrawal and the rules for early repayment.

That means two practical things. First: you know what to look for, because the list is fixed in advance. Second: if something from this list is missing from the agreement or is stated incorrectly, the law provides for the free credit sanction (sankcja kredytu darmowego) - the borrower can repay the loan without interest and without other costs. It is a powerful tool, but it is subject to a deadline and requires legal assessment, so treat it as a reason to consult a lawyer, not as a plan.

Before you sit down to read

Ask for the draft agreement and the information form in writing, to take home, the day before you sign. You are entitled to this, and every bank does it. Reading an agreement at the desk of an adviser who keeps looking at the clock is a lost cause from the start. If someone refuses to hand over the documents before you sign - that is the first and sufficient answer to the question of whether to sign.

1. The total amount of the loan versus the amount paid out

These are two different numbers and the most common source of misunderstanding. "The total amount of the loan" is the amount placed at your disposal. If you see PLN 108,000 in the agreement but PLN 100,000 is to land in your account, it means PLN 8,000 of costs have been financed - and will be charged interest along with the rest.

Find both places in the agreement and compare them. If they differ, look for the difference in these items: arrangement fee, insurance, processing fee. We worked out what this kind of set-up costs in the guide to loan insurance - the interest on the premium alone comes to PLN 1,618.22 there.

2. All the fees, not just the arrangement fee

Everyone notices the arrangement fee. Recurring fees are much easier to miss, because they are small amounts. Look at what one of them does - a compulsory account at PLN 15 a month on a loan of PLN 50,000, 9.00%, 96 instalments:

	No fee	With PLN 15/month fee
Instalment to pay	PLN 732.51	PLN 747.51
APR	9.38%	10.01%
Fees alone	PLN 0	PLN 1,440.00
Cost of the loan	PLN 20,320.98	PLN 21,760.98

Fifteen zloty raised the APR by 0.63 percentage points. That is more than the typical difference between a good and an average offer on the market. What to look for in the table of fees:

an account fee, if the account is a condition of the loan,
an early repayment fee (full and partial - the rates are often different),
a fee for issuing a loan certificate and a repayment history,
a fee for changing the schedule, a payment holiday, an annex,
a fee for reminders and payment demands.

Check the last point especially carefully if your income is irregular.

3. Interest rate: fixed, variable and the conditions for change

Find not just the rate itself but the rules for changing it. The agreement must state the reference rate and the margin and describe when and how the rate is updated. Three questions for this clause:

Is the margin fixed for the whole term? If it can change - in what circumstances and by how much.
Is the lower margin conditional? A very common set-up: the margin goes up if you stop paying a set amount into the account or cancel the insurance. Check by how much.
If the interest rate is fixed for a period - what exactly happens when the fixed period ends. The agreement should describe this, not refer to future arrangements.

Before you sign an agreement with a variable rate, work out the instalment at an interest rate 3-4 percentage points higher and check that it still fits your budget. Why that particular buffer, and what inflation has to do with it, we explain in the guide to inflation and your loan.

4. The right of withdrawal: 14 days, but counted precisely

With a consumer loan you have 14 days to withdraw from the agreement without giving a reason (Art. 53 of the Act). You bear no costs apart from interest for the period in which you actually had the money. It is a real safety net - on three conditions:

The deadline runs from the day the agreement is concluded, not from the payout or from the day you realised your mistake.
The date of posting counts, not the date of delivery. Send the statement by registered post and keep the receipt.
You repay the capital within 30 days of submitting the statement. If the money has already been spent, withdrawal is not a way out - it just turns the debt into one that is due immediately.

The bank is required to attach a model withdrawal statement to the agreement. Check that it is in your set - its absence is a warning sign in itself.

5. Early repayment: a right nobody can take away from you

You always have the right to repay a consumer loan early, at any time and without the bank's consent. The agreement may provide for compensation, but the law limits its amount and conditions - and if you repay after a certain time or below a certain amount threshold, no compensation is due at all.

What matters most, though, is what happens to costs you have already paid. Under Art. 49 of the Act the total cost of the loan is reduced in proportion to the shortened term, and the Court of Justice of the EU in case C-383/18 confirmed that this applies to all costs - including an arrangement fee paid upfront:

refund = fee × (instalments remaining / total instalments)

A PLN 2,500 fee, repayment after 24 of 96 instalments:
PLN 2,500 × 72/96 = PLN 1,875.00 to be refunded.

The bank will not refund this on its own - you have to apply for it. The whole procedure, including what to do if you are refused, is in a separate article: early repayment and fee refunds.

While you are at it, check one technical thing: how the agreement handles an overpayment by default - whether it shortens the term or lowers the instalment. That setting decides how much you really save, and you can work it out in the overpayment calculator.

6. Security and what you sign "on the side"

Besides the loan agreement itself, you usually sign several accompanying documents. Check what they are:

A blank promissory note (weksel in blanco) - if it is in the set, check the promissory note declaration, which sets out when and for what amount the bank may fill it in.
A declaration of submission to enforcement or a power of attorney over your account - these are not formalities but real powers on the bank's side.
Assignment of an insurance policy - establish who the beneficiary is and what happens to any surplus benefit once the loan is repaid.

7. Consequences of missed payments

The agreement must describe what happens if you do not pay. Pay attention to three numbers: the interest rate on overdue debt, the cost of reminders and demands, and the conditions for terminating the agreement - after how many days of arrears and with what notice period. Termination means the whole capital becomes due immediately, and that is a scenario to avoid at all costs.

Also check whether the agreement provides for any restructuring procedure - suspending instalments, extending the term, lowering the instalment. Knowing that such a route exists and whom to contact about it is worth more than ten pages of the remaining clauses. Talking to the bank before your first missed payment gives you completely different options than talking after the third - we explain why in the guide to BIK (Poland's credit bureau).

8. Marketing consents and data processing

Consents to marketing, profiling and passing data to third parties are voluntary, and not giving them must not affect the lending decision or the terms of the loan. If someone suggests otherwise, they are not telling the truth. You give each consent separately and can withdraw each separately - and each of them is usually just a box to untick, not a condition of the agreement.

Note one detail: consent to BIK processing your data after the loan is repaid is a completely different matter. This consent works in your favour, because it lets you build a positive credit history. Withdrawing it removes from your report the evidence that you repaid on time.

9. The APR and the assumptions it was calculated on

Finally, come back to one number - the APR - and read the assumptions used to calculate it, which the agreement must state. There you will find whether the APR includes the insurance, the account fee and the other costs, and for what amount and term it was calculated.

This is your final consistency test: if you see an APR of 9.38% in the agreement and, in the table of fees, a compulsory PLN 15 monthly fee that was not included in the APR - one of those pieces of information is untrue. Enter your numbers in the APR calculator and compare the result with the agreement. A discrepancy is a question for the adviser that is worth asking before you sign.

Short checklist - to print out

1. Total amount of the loan = amount paid into your account? · 2. All fees, including recurring ones · 3. Conditions for changing the interest rate and margin · 4. Model withdrawal statement included · 5. Cost and procedure for early repayment · 6. What I am signing besides the agreement · 7. Consequences of arrears and the restructuring route · 8. Which consents are voluntary · 9. Does the APR match the calculator?

Work it out yourself

Calculator

APR calculator

Copy the amount, interest rate, term, arrangement fee, insurance and monthly fees from the agreement. The calculator will work out the APR and the total amount payable - and show whether they match the numbers the bank put in the agreement. A discrepancy is a question worth asking before you sign.

Open the APR calculator

Read also

Early repayment and fee refunds - how to claim the money you are owed.
Loan insurance - three ways of adding the premium and their effect on the APR.
APR or interest rate - how to read the number the bank put in the agreement.

The numbers in this article were calculated with the engine that powers our calculators (js/finance.js); the amounts, rates and fees are a worked example, not an offer from any institution. References to legislation concern the Polish Consumer Credit Act of 12 May 2011 and are for information only - mortgages are governed by a separate Mortgage Credit Act, and the details depend on the wording of the specific agreement. This text is educational and does not constitute legal advice or an offer within the meaning of Art. 66 §1 of the Polish Civil Code. For a specific agreement, consult a lawyer; free help is also available from the Financial Ombudsman (Rzecznik Finansowy) and from municipal and district consumer ombudsmen.