Monday, September 16, 2013

$700k windfall: Russian man outwits bank with hand-written credit contract

$700k windfall: Russian man outwits bank with hand-written credit contract. I really do love stories like this. Reminds me of the guy that bought a Dell to use Linux on, read the Windows license, didn't agree to the terms and followed their instructions to destroy all copies and return for a full refund. Dell had no idea what to do and said go to Microsoft. MS said you have to go to Dell. Ultimately he won.

A Russian man who decided to write his own small print in a credit card contract has had his changes upheld in court. He's now suing the country's leading online bank for more than 24 million rubles ($727,000) in compensation.

Disappointed by the terms of the unsolicited offer for a credit card from Tinkoff Credit Systems in 2008, a  42-year-old Dmitry Agarkov from the city of Voronezh decided to hand write his own credits terms.

The trick was that Agarkov simply scanned the bank’s document and ‘amended’ the small print with his own terms.

He opted for a 0 percent interest rate and no fees, adding that the customer 'is not obliged to pay any fees and charges imposed by bank tariffs.' The bank, however, didn’t read ‘the amendments’, as it signed and certified the document, as well as sent the man a credit card. Under the agreement, the bank OK'd to provide unlimited credit, according to Agarkov’s lawyer Dmitry Mikhalevich talking to Kommersant daily.

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