Transaction costs reduce the mobility of consumers who are not content with alterations of the interest rate etc.
for want of competition between banks concerning alteration clauses a consumer looking for another bank is not likely to find one without a contract clause to the same effect;
therefore, consumers' formal legal right to repay the entire loan prematurely and go to another bank is often no alternative in the real world ;
according to the practice of the Banking Complaints Board and of the courts in individual civil suits the banks do not have an unlimited right to alter the interest rate etc;
thus, the wording of the contract clause does not reflect a position which is tenable under contract law;
furthermore, the contested contract clauses violate the disclosure rules of the Consumer Credit Act (398/1990) according to which the contract shall include a statement of the conditions under which the credit costs may be altered, cf. art. 4, 2, b) of the Consumer Credit Directive (87/102/EEC);
the fact that the banks are exempted from i.a the Consumer Credit Act’s general prohibition of clauses making variations of credit costs following an index influenced by the lender, does not mean that the banks have an unlimited right to make alterations.