Abstract

The article analyzes selected legal issues regarding the offering of revolving credit facilities to consumers. Despite the fact that the Consumer Credit Act has been in force for over 8 years, the discussed issue still arouses numerous doubts both in theory and in practice. Such a state of affairs is mostly a consequence of the imprecise translation of the Polish version of the consumer credit Directive. As a result, both the Polish version of the Directive and the Consumer Credit Act use the term revolving credit facility, whereas in fact they regulate open-end credit agreements. Meanwhile, on the financial market, a revolving credit facility is understood as a credit line granted to the borrower, under which he can make an indefinite number of withdrawals up to a certain limit. On the consumer finance market, the revolving credit facility mostly appears in the form of an overdraft facility or as a credit card agreement. This, in turn, results from the fact that only in relation to this type of "products" the application of the provisions of the Consumer Credit Act regarding the non-interest credit cost limits has been excluded. The article attempts to sort out the issues connected with granting a revolving credit facility to consumers. For this purpose, a review of the judgements of the Supreme Court, common courts, as well as the decisions of the President of the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection issued in this matter is presented. Finally, de lege ferenda remarks are offered in order to make the existing regulations more consistent.