The Central Credit Information System (HGTs system, formerly known as the BAR list) is the system whereby banks keep track of “badly paying” debtors. In the case of private individuals, debt may be included in the HGTs list if they are due to a financial institution through loans or leases, reaching a minimum wage of at least 90 days.
The most common types of loans are: personal loan, credit card, home loan, commodity loan (mobile phone, TV, etc.), car loan, car leasing.
Few people know that you can get on the HGTs list even if someone is providing false information in your credit application, using a fake or falsified document and proving it to be fraudulent, or using credit card fraud (eg stolen card, stolen data). These persons will not be removed from the HGTs list.
In the event that someone is added to the list, it is recorded at two levels:
- An active HGTs list is one that has capital and ancillary costs to the financial institution (eg interest, etc.).
- A HGTs listed with a passive status is one who has settled all its debts to the financial institution and has no overdue debts to other financial institutions.
If someone has paid off their debt
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It is recorded for another 5 full calendar years and then permanently deleted from the register. So, if someone has paid their debts on April 15, 2009, their first calendar year begins on January 1, 2010 and will be permanently removed from the HGTs list on January 1, 2015.
A common question is whether it is possible to take out loans with active and passive HGTs status. In the absence of real estate collateral, unfortunately, Hungarian banks do not lend to active HGTs listers (in this case, borrowing from Austria is not an option either, as Austrian financial institutions do not look at the BAR list, but real estate of sufficient value is definitely needed). As a passive BAR list, you have more options for borrowing, but most often require a surety.
If you have real estate collateral
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You can take out passive and even active HGTs status. It is worth knowing that only good properties (good for quick sale in case of trouble) are accepted. That’s why there are so-called settlement lists, which list the properties in which a settlement is acceptable. Active HGTs listers usually only get a loan if they pay off their outstanding debt from the borrowed loan. In many cases, financial institutions ask for a non-HGTs debtor.
The financial and credit crisis has shown that banks are losing or severely limiting lending to HGTs listers in the event of lack of money and confidence.
