Many savings contracts from savings banks and banks contain inadmissible interest clauses.
Anyone who has such a contract can request an additional payment.
Long-term savings contracts were mainly sold in the 1990s and 2000s by savings banks, Volks- and Raiffeisenbanks and private banks.
Many of these old contracts contain illegal interest rate adjustment clauses.
Anyone who has concluded the following contracts can have interest * recalculated -
and thus reclaim thousands of euros from their own bank
.
Some interest clauses in contracts are worth examining more closely.
This is the case, for example, with interest rate regulations in old savings contracts.
These are not infrequently illegal, as the consumer advice center informs.
The background: The market interest rates have fallen immensely in recent years, which is why credit institutions have adjusted the savings rates of the contracts downwards at regular intervals - sometimes up to 0.001 percent.
This was justified with an interest clause in the savings contracts, which should entitle the holder to adjust the interest rates.
As a result, too little interest was credited to many customers
.
The consumer can, however, request a subsequent billing - and, depending on the contract, expect a lucrative additional payment.
The consumer advice centers have already legally checked thousands of contracts nationwide.
Contracts with incorrect interest rate adjustment clauses ran for example under the name “Bonusplan” (Volks- und Raiffeisenbank), “Vorsorgesparen” (Sparkasse) or “Scala” (Sparkasse).
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Illegal clauses in savings contracts: "You are not credited with enough interest"
The contracts concerned, which can be challenged, contain so-called sliding interest clauses, interest rate change clauses or interest adjustment clauses.
"
Such illegal clauses enable banks to adjust the interest rate at their own discretion
, which is usually at the expense of the customer: They are credited with too little interest!"
A list of the banks and products that are affected can be viewed here
The consumer advice centers have already checked and recalculated over 5,000 long-term savings contracts from various banks and savings banks.
The result:
consumers received an average of around 4,000 euros too little interest.
"If you suspect that you have a contract with incorrect interest rate adjustments, you should ask your bank to explain the interest calculation and, if necessary, carry out a new billing," says the consumer advice center, which provides a sample letter.
(jg)
*
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.
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