A salary-backed loan may seem like a straightforward financing arrangement: the installment is deducted directly from salary or pension, and the relationship continues until maturity. Doubts often arise when the loan is closed ahead of schedule, replaced by a new salary-backed loan, or when, upon reviewing the contract, commissions, insurance premiums, and interest appear that make it difficult to understand how much was actually paid.

Not every cost is automatically illegitimate, but early termination can raise the issue of reducing costs related to the period no longer enjoyed. Another distinct issue is potential usury: this does not depend merely on the impression that the loan is expensive, but rather on a technical comparison with the applicable limit when the credit was agreed. I will help you separate these levels, understand which documents matter, and recognize the errors that can weaken a challenge.

Salary-backed loans do not eliminate the rules on consumer credit

Payroll deductions do not exhaust the contract. Salary-backed loans are a repayment method in which a portion of remuneration or pension is allocated to the lender. Alongside the rules specific to this type of loan, consumer credit regulations may apply: Article 6-bis of Presidential Decree No. 180 of 1950 expressly refers to such rules for loans governed by Titles II and III of the Consolidated Law. This connection was introduced by Legislative Decree No. 169 of 2012, Article 31.

The contract must therefore be read as a whole. It is not enough to stop at the installment amount or the nominal interest rate, known as TAN. It is necessary to distinguish the capital actually received, interest, commissions, processing or intermediary costs, collection charges, and any insurance coverage premium. The name given to an item does not unilaterally determine its treatment: what also matters is what it was used for, who requested it, to whom it was paid, and whether it depended on the duration of the financing.

The contract date remains decisive. Legislative Decree no. 212 of 2025 entered into force on 10 January 2026, but Article 6 requires compliance by 20 November 2026 or, if later, ninety days after the Bank of Italy’s implementing provisions enter into force. Consumer credit agreements signed before that deadline remain subject to the relevant earlier rules. For an existing salary-backed loan, reading the new Article 125-sexies alone is therefore insufficient: the applicable contractual regime must be identified.

Early termination: when the issue of unaccrued costs arises

The right to a reduction arises with early repayment. If the loan continues until the final installment, the question of unaccrued costs does not arise in the same terms. If instead the debt is closed before maturity, in whole or in part, the consumer is entitled to a reduction in the total cost of credit relating to the residual duration. Article 125-sexies of the Consolidated Banking Act thus links reimbursement to the part of the relationship that will not continue.

Interest and costs follow a calculation, not a freely chosen percentage. The contract must clearly indicate the criteria used to reduce interest and other costs: the proportional linear criterion or the amortized cost criterion may be provided for. If the contract does not indicate otherwise, the Consolidated Banking Act establishes the amortized cost criterion. This does not mean that every item is refunded in the exact same proportion; it means that the calculation must be readable, verifiable, and consistent with the applicable criterion.

Refunds must be calculated under the applicable regime. The new wording of Article 125-sexies includes initial costs and third-party expenses charged by the lender; it excludes taxes and duration-independent expenses charged by third parties and paid directly to them by the consumer. That distinction belongs to the new regime and must not automatically be transferred to earlier salary-backed loans. For those agreements, the earlier rules and case law on cost refunds must be considered, without excluding an item merely because it was an initial cost.

Why initial commissions cannot be excluded with a simple label

An initial cost is not automatically non-refundable. For a long time, in disputes over financing, the distinction between costs accrued during the relationship and costs incurred at the time of stipulation was raised. The Constitutional Court, with judgment No. 263 of 2022, declared illegitimate the part of the transitional legislation that required, for contracts prior to the 2021 reform, reference to secondary transparency and supervisory rules incompatible with European Union law. The ruling therefore prevents denying reimbursement solely because a cost is defined as "up-front" or initial. See the Constitutional Court judgment No. 263 of 2022.

This does not turn every termination into an identical refund. The calculation requires the original duration, the installments already paid, the date of termination, the early repayment calculation, and individual cost items. A figure indicated as a "financial commission," "activation commission," or "intermediary cost" must be linked to the contract and the entity that received it. Without this reconstruction, the risk is claiming an unexplained amount or accepting a refund that does not show the criterion used.

CPI policies: the insurance premium must be separated from other costs

The CPI policy is not always a marginal item. This expression refers to insurance coverages linked to credit, often related to the risk of death, job loss, or other situations that may affect repayment. In salary-backed loans, the presence of insurance is frequent, but reading the word "policy" is not enough to conclude that the entire premium must be refunded after termination.

First and foremost, the connection with the financing matters. If the coverage was necessary to obtain the credit or to obtain it under the conditions offered, the relative cost may contribute to the total cost of the credit. If the premium was charged by the lender, its treatment in the early repayment calculation must be read together with Article 125-sexies of the Consolidated Banking Act. If instead the consumer concluded and paid directly for an independent policy with an insurance company, the refund request also depends on the policy conditions and applicable insurance regulations.

The termination of the financing does not alone resolve every insurance aspect. It is necessary to verify whether the insurance contract ceases with termination, whether it provides for a refund of the premium portion relating to the residual period, whether it retains separate coverage, or whether it identifies a different beneficiary of the refund. Confusing the loan contract with the policy can lead to sending the request to the wrong entity. Useful documentation includes the insurance certificate, policy conditions, premium receipt, and the early repayment calculation.

Usury in salary-backed loans: checking is different from early repayment

An expensive loan is not usurious for that reason alone. Verifying usury requires a comparison between the cost of credit, determined according to legally relevant criteria, and the threshold rate of the category corresponding to the operation during the period in which interest or other charges were promised or agreed. For this reason, the date of signing cannot be replaced by the date of the dispute or the date of the final installment.

Charges other than interest are also relevant to the cost. Article 644 of the Criminal Code considers commissions, remunerations of any kind, and expenses connected to the provision of credit for the determination of the usurious rate, excluding taxes and duties. Law No. 108 of 1996 also provides that the limit is built on the survey of the homogeneous category concerned. Loans against salary assignment constitute a specific category in the surveys of average global effective rates: it is therefore unreliable to compare the contract with a threshold referring to a personal loan or a mortgage. The regulatory framework can be consulted in Law No. 108 of 1996.

The civil effect requires rigorous verification. When usurious interest is agreed, Article 1815, second paragraph, of the Civil Code provides for the nullity of the clause and the non-due nature of the interest. This is a significant consequence, which cannot be based solely on the difference between TAN and TAEG, nor on a calculation that includes or excludes costs without explanation. Any insurance premium must also be examined in its concrete relationship with the provision of credit, without presuming its automatic inclusion or exclusion.

How to set up a dispute without confusing requests

The first choice is to identify the objective. If the loan was repaid early, the primary claim may concern the reduction of interest, commissions, and unaccrued costs. If threshold rate exceedance is suspected, the problem is instead the validity of the agreement on interest and connected charges. The two issues can coexist, but they have different prerequisites, calculations, and consequences.

The request must indicate facts and contested items. It is useful to linearly reconstruct the stipulation date, financed amount, duration, net amount received, installment, date and reason for termination, early repayment calculation, and sums already refunded. The contract, the European information sheet with basic information, the amortization schedule, periodic communications, insurance documentation, and the quietus of termination make it possible to understand what was charged and under what title.

A refund proposal must be read before accepting it. Some calculations indicate an amount without clarifying whether it concerns only future interest, commissions as well, an insurance premium, or a sum already deducted in the final balance. Accepting a definition as a final balance can affect residual claims. If the documents do not show the calculation method or the policy does not clarify the destination of the premium, I can help you distinguish the claim against the lender from that potentially addressed to the insurer.

Frequently asked questions

Can I request a refund of costs if the loan was refinanced?

Yes, refinancing does not alone exclude the request. If the previous financing is terminated before maturity, the relative early repayment calculation must be verified. However, the new loan and the old one must remain distinct: the refund concerns the items of the closed contract, not automatically the costs of the financing replacing it.

Must the CPI policy always be partially refunded?

No, it depends on the connection and the conditions of the policy. The premium can affect the total cost of credit if it was required to obtain the financing or the offered conditions. However, the refund requires establishing whether coverage ceases with termination, who collected the premium, and what contractual mechanism is provided for.

Does a TAN lower than the threshold rate exclude usury?

No, the TAN does not exhaust the check. For the verification of usury, commissions, remunerations, and expenses connected to the credit may also become relevant, while taxes and duties follow a different rule. The comparison must be carried out with the threshold rate of the specific category and quarter in which the contract was concluded.

Is the early repayment calculation enough to understand if I am entitled to a refund?

It is an important document, but it must be compared with the contract. It must be read together with original duration, paid installments, amortization schedule, and details of commissions and policies. An amount indicated without explaining the reduction criterion does not allow, by itself, to understand whether all relevant items were considered.

Can I challenge a loan that has been closed for a long time?

The possibility does not depend solely on the closure of the contract. It is necessary to distinguish the type of claim, the date of termination or stipulation, any acts already signed, and the applicable temporal regime. Since prescription and accrual require precise data, it is not prudent to derive a deadline from a general rule without examining the documentation.

Essential regulatory references

For guidance, the main references are Article 125-sexies of the Consolidated Banking Act, as amended by Legislative Decree No. 212 of 2025; Article 6-bis of Presidential Decree No. 180 of 1950, introduced by Legislative Decree No. 169 of 2012; the regulation of usury contained in Law No. 108 of 1996; and the Constitutional Court judgment No. 263 of 2022 on early cost refunds in contracts prior to the 2021 reform.

An effective challenge starts with orderly documents and separate requests. If you have a contract, an early repayment calculation, or a policy that does not make charges and refunds understandable, you can contact me.