The second big rush in department stores comes between the two holidays

Many people appeal to the post-holiday, year-end discounts, so from December 27th, the promotions in stores will increase. Many people also time their loans for this time of year, as discounted loans, even with a 0 percent APR, are often still available until the end of the year, but there is also demand for “last minute” personal loans for larger loan amounts, points out Attila Fülöp Norbert, financial expert at BiztosDöntés.hu. Not least because, he adds, these can often be applied for online, and if everything goes well, the money can arrive in the account quickly.

So far this year, commodity lending has shown a mixed picture: in the first ten months of 2025, Hungarians took out a total of 30.9 billion forints of this loan product, which is almost 18 percent less than a year earlier. The number of loan agreements decreased to a slightly lesser extent, by 16.6 percent, and as a result, the average loan amount increased to 263,987 forints.

Meanwhile, demand for personal loans without real estate collateral was enormous in the first ten months of this year: by October, Hungarians had taken out such loans worth 936 billion forints, which is an increase of over 37 percent compared to a year earlier. The difference in the number of contracts is also significant: by October this year, banks had concluded 296,061 contracts, which is an increase of 15 percent, so the average loan amount increased to 3.16 million forints.

Fülöp Norbert Attila reminds us: credit for goods almost always requires at least 20 percent down payment, while personal loans are mostly for free, so anything can be purchased with the money received, even without your own resources.

However, there are also credit cards that allow purchases without own funds, such as the OTP AKCIÓ468 credit card for purchasing goods, which can be taken out up to 750,000 forints without own funds (the minimum requirement is 20 percent above that). In addition, the APR is also 0 percent, meaning that the customer ultimately has to repay exactly the amount borrowed.

MBH Bank also has a credit card with a 0 percent APR, which can be applied for at MediaMarkt for a 6-month term until the end of the year. Alza offers Cofidis’ online grocery loan with 0 percent APR, also until the end of the year.

However, the maximum loan amount for grocery loans is significantly lower than for personal loans: for the aforementioned OTP quick loan, the ceiling is 1.5 million forints, and for the MBH and Cofidis loans, the ceiling is 2 million forints. In contrast, with a personal loan, you can get up to 15 million forints from Erste, CIB, K&H, OTP, Raiffeisen, UniCredit and MBH Bank.

However, merchandise credits are only available at certain retailers, and even then only for designated products. This means that if the product you want to buy is more expensive in a given store than elsewhere, it means a loss. There is no such restriction with a personal loan, so you can buy where the offer is the most favorable.