Consumer advocates are sounding the alarm about high account fees.
They continue to warn against a "scam" - and want to go to court if necessary.
Frankfurt / Berlin - Consumer advocates do not want to accept the behavior of some credit institutions in the dispute over account fees without a fight. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled in April that the previous approach by banks to increase fees is illegal. Many financial institutions had increased the fees without the explicit consent of the customers - but tacit consent is not sufficient from the point of view of the BGH. In the opinion of Stiftung Warentest, banks and savings banks must now reimburse billions of euros in account fees due to the ruling.
But the reaction of the banks to this ruling leaves much to be desired from a consumer protection perspective.
According to the first findings of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv), a savings bank and some smaller cooperative banks have so far seen a reimbursement request as an occasion to terminate the account relationship with the customer.
Account fees: Consumer advocates want to go to court for a second round if necessary
You have to see whether individual cases become a scam to threaten consumers with illegal account cancellations, said the head of the vzbv, Klaus Müller, of the dpa.
"In this respect, my appeal to the financial sector is very clear: You can also gamble away your trust." The vzbv boss announced that you will go to a second round of court if you do not see that the inadmissible account fees are being reimbursed.
The termination of the Sparkasse is in any case not permissible from the point of view of the consumer advice center.
It contradicts the statutory basic service mandate of the savings banks.
In Germany everyone has the right to a bank account.
In most federal states, the public-law savings banks are legally obliged to provide everyone with a “Jedermann account” on a credit basis.
Banks under fire: According to the BGH ruling - this is how customers get their fees back
Customers who have not expressly agreed to a fee increase can now have the costs reimbursed retrospectively. Account holders must, however, take action themselves. The consumer advocates provide a sample form on their side that customers can send to their bank in order to reclaim improperly levied fees. The fees apply at the time the account is opened, but amounts before January 1, 2018 are statute-barred.
If you have problems with the reimbursement, you can contact the consumer advice center using a form on the vzbz website. This is especially true if the financial institution terminates the contract after reclaiming it. After a call by the consumer advice center, over 1,000 consumers had already contacted the consumer advocates to report on the reaction of their bank or savings bank to the BGH ruling. (
dpa / bm
)
