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Many savings bank and bank fees are illegal: you should be aware of this

2023-03-08T12:19:29.517Z


Many customers of savings banks and banks are entitled to reimbursement of illegal fee increases. But not all financial institutions comply. What customers can do now.


Many customers of savings banks and banks are entitled to reimbursement of illegal fee increases.

But not all financial institutions comply.

What customers can do now.

Munich - This is how many customers of savings banks and banks feel: the fees for their accounts have been increased without their prior active consent.

Consumer associations sued against this approach.

The Federal Court of Justice agreed with them.

As a result, increases in fees without the active consent of customers are ineffective.

Customers only have to pay the prices valid when the account was opened or when the account model was last changed.

Account management fees debited beyond this can be reclaimed.

"The statements of the BGH also apply to the increases in custody fees and the introduction of negative interest rates," explain the consumer advocates from Stiftung Warentest, citing the judgment of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court of May 24, 2022

Bank charges illegal: Customers should check their contract documents

In order for customers to get the excess money back from the financial institutions, they should first check their contract documents to see how high the fees were when opening the accounts or custody accounts.

Anyone who has not agreed to an increase can demand a refund of the excess money paid.

In addition, there is the interest that the bank must reimburse.

Incidentally, this regulation also applies to banks where consumers are no longer customers but have paid excessive fees in the past.

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled in spring 2021

Banks and savings banks have to reimburse their customers for account fees amounting to several billion euros.

Because all changes to the terms and conditions of banks and savings banks, including all price increases, are ineffective without express consent.

It is not enough to inform customers of the new conditions and give them the opportunity to object.

"Silence is not consent," the judges reasoned.

The Hanover Regional Court added in summary proceedings at the request of the

Federal

Association of Consumer Organizations : Continued use of the account does not constitute approval of the current account conditions.

The district court of Trier added: All illegal payments within the last ten years must be reimbursed.

Consumer advocates believe that consumers with originally free accounts in particular are entitled to several hundred euros.

But in the meantime, many banks have terminated their customers' accounts if they did not agree to the new, mostly higher account management fees.

At Postbank, for example, it should affect a five-digit number of customers, as reported by

Merkur.de

.

The Sparkasse Nuremberg had sent around 10,000 customers a letter of termination.

+

Many bank customers are entitled to reimbursement of unlawful charges.

(icon picture)

© Oliver Zimmermann/imago

Bank fees illegal: Customers can use the sample letters from consumer advocates

Consumer advocates from Stiftung Warentest recommend that customers who do not want to forego reimbursement of the illegally collected fees should “at least demand their rights”, contact the ombudsman of the money house, lawyers or courts.

One option is

to use the sample letters from

test.de.

Because in practice it has been shown that most institutes do not approach their customers by themselves to refund them money.

Although in the opinion of lawyers, according to the BGB, banks and savings banks are obliged to surrender.

In the case of Postbank, it shows that the institute "is now collecting the old fee rates again,"

reports

test.de.

This means that many old Postbank accounts are free again for the time being.

However, Postbank will not make any refunds of its own accord either.

Customers would have to demand them, so the tip.

Customers should also recover any fee payments in excess of those agreed within the last ten years.

If the ombudsman or the ombudswoman of the financial institutions does not respond to the claims out of court, customers only have the option of engaging a lawyer.

A Postbank customer would be entitled to this as a refund - an example calculation:

A Postbank customer opened her Giro Plus account in July 2016 - at that time with free account management.

Since November 2016, she has been paying account management fees of 3.90 euros at the end of each month and since October 2019 even 4.90 euros.

In April 2021, the price finally rose to 5.90 euros.

In addition, as of January 1st, 2018, her Visa card costs 29 euros (instead of 20 euros previously) per year.

Your

entitlement to reimbursement of payments

including the account management fee for June 2021 is exactly

269.40 euros

.

In addition, Postbank has to disclose what it has earned with the money.

According to the Federal Court of Justice, interest of five points above the base interest rate is to be assumed – that would currently be 4.12 percent, since this is currently negative.

As of September 30, 2021, that would be another 25.79 euros.

The customer is therefore entitled to a total of 295.19 euros

.


Source:

Stiftung Warentest

The ombudsman procedure is not only free of charge for bank customers, but also without risk.

"If customers do not agree with the decisions of the arbitrators, they can still go to the ordinary courts," explains the

Association of German Banks

.

However, if you do not want to hire a lawyer and want to take legal action against your bank or savings bank, you can only look for

a new account with another provider on comparison portals such as

Check24.de

or

Verivox.de .

A look at the free current accounts from Stiftung Warentest can also be useful for this.

Stay up to date on consumer information and product recalls with our brand new consumer newsletter.

List of rubrics: © Oliver Zimmermann/imago

Source: merkur

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