Does m-way charge usurious interest on e-bike installment payments?
E-bikes are usually only no fun in one place: In your wallet. Good quality electric bikes are available from around 3,000 francs - and not every potential e-biker has this amount to spare. Migros subsidiary m-way, for example, offers installment payments and the snappy slogan "Ride now, pay in 2019."
Illegal interest rates
According to research by the SRF consumer magazine "Espresso", these installment payments do not comply with the law. With the payment processor "byjuno", M-way offers a small loan business for installment payments and charges interest and fees that are "steep and in some cases illegal", according to SRF News. Depending on the financing model selected, an interest rate of 11.9% to 14.9% is charged when paying in installments at m-way. As the Small Loans Act stipulates a maximum effective interest rate of 10%, m-way is now being criticized for violating the law.
The SRF News report also explains how m-way works with confusing price information for financing, which violates the Price Disclosure Ordinance. The debt advisor Mario Roncoroni interviewed by the consumer magazine also said that the interest charged on certain repayment models could be described as usurious.Denial from m-way - and action behind the scenesM-way reacted to the research by "Espresso" by announcing that it was currently investigating the allegations of incorrect information in the calculation examples. The accusations do not seem to have left m-way unscathed: There are no longer any references to installment payments or financing on m-way's website. Links to the "Ride now, pay in 2019" offer sent out in promotional mailings are also no longer available.
Note: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.