Savings banks charge customers with interest - one million contracts affected
Created: 01/29/2022, 10:35 am
Consumer advocates criticize the savings banks for not having made outstanding interest payments.
(Iconic image) © Julian Stratenschulte/dpa
“Disappointed and powerless consumers”: The savings banks would not pay back interest despite the BGH ruling, according to the accusation of consumer protection groups.
Karlsruhe – In October, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled in favor of consumers in the interest dispute over premium savings contracts – consumer advocates have now criticized the savings banks* for still not having made outstanding interest payments.
Consumer advocates: It's about a million contracts
It's about one million contracts, said the Finanzwende citizens' movement, the
Finanztip
money guide and the Saxony consumer center on Friday (January 28).
To date, “neither the savings banks nor the German Savings Banks and Giro Association have considered it appropriate” to pay interest that was withheld.
With premium savings - which was particularly popular in the 1990s and 2000s - the interest paid was variable.
How the interest rate was to be calculated and changed was not spelled out in detail in the contracts.
The current sentence was announced by a notice.
So the bank was able to adjust it unilaterally.
The savings banks would have paid less interest than the customers are entitled to
The Federal Court of Justice ruled in autumn that a reference interest rate must be set by the court for the calculation of interest on old contracts.
The BGH ruled that the bank had to keep a relative distance from the reference interest rate and adjust the interest rate monthly.
The regulatory gap must be closed.
Savings banks have "very often paid less interest over many years than the savers are entitled to," the action alliance recalled on Friday.
It is "overdue" for the affected savings banks to pay the outstanding interest from the long-term savings contracts.
"Disappointed or powerless in the face of the big providers" showed many of the mostly elderly consumers in the consultation, explained the consumer advice center in Saxony.
It is “not about peanuts”, but about an average of 3,600 euros per contract.
The consumer advocates also started an online petition calling on the savings banks and the German Savings Banks and Giro Association* to pay the outstanding interest.
(dpa)
*Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
