The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Dispute over premium savings contracts: the first savings banks are open to additional payments

2022-02-25T14:23:46.228Z


Dispute over premium savings contracts: the first savings banks are open to additional payments Created: 02/25/2022, 15:13 By: Lisa Mayerhofer Some savings banks are now moving in the dispute over the premium savings contracts. © Marijan Murat/dpa Some savings banks are now moving in the dispute over the premium savings contracts. You want to offer customers additional payments. But consumer a


Dispute over premium savings contracts: the first savings banks are open to additional payments

Created: 02/25/2022, 15:13

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

Some savings banks are now moving in the dispute over the premium savings contracts.

© Marijan Murat/dpa

Some savings banks are now moving in the dispute over the premium savings contracts.

You want to offer customers additional payments.

But consumer advocates remain skeptical.

Frankfurt – In the dispute over premium savings contracts, more and more savings banks* are striving for an agreement with their customers.

It's about a million contracts.

An action alliance of the citizens' movement Finanzwende, the Geldratgeber Finanztip and the Verbraucherzentrale Sachsen accuses the savings banks of withholding interest and thus cash from customers with these contracts.

Premium savings contracts: BGH sees savings banks as having an obligation

Background: 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 the contracts.

The current rate was announced by a notice.

So the bank was able to adjust it unilaterally.

However, the BGH ruled in autumn 2021 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* would have "very often paid less interest over many years than the savers are entitled to," explains the action alliance.

It is "overdue" for the affected savings banks to pay the outstanding interest from the long-term savings contracts.

It is “not about peanuts”, but an average of 3600 euros per contract.

Dispute over premium savings contracts: First savings banks want to approach customers

So far, however, the savings banks have hardly taken any action to offer the affected customers additional payments.

"Disappointed or powerless in the face of the big providers," many of the mostly elderly consumers said in a January statement.

Now, however, more and more savings bank associations seem to be reacting to the threat of damage to their image.

After the savings banks in Baden-Württemberg, which announced comparisons, the savings banks association in Bavaria is now following suit.

Association President Ulrich Reuter told the

Handelsblatt

:

"We try to come to an agreement with as many customers as possible." This applies above all when the contracts end.

The East German Savings Banks Association, which is primarily affected by lawsuits relating to premium savings contracts, recommends that its savings banks approach customers.

"Some savings banks are adapting existing premium savings contracts and agreeing on fixed interest rates with customers, for example," said Executive President Ludger Weskamp to

Handelsblatt

.

"In other cases, if there is a prospect of an agreement, savings banks will enter into settlements and make further payments."

The consumer advice center in Saxony welcomes "that there is finally movement towards customers in the savings bank landscape".

"We hope that all other savings banks will follow the first examples," said Andrea Heyer, financial expert at the consumer center.

However, the consumer advocates are skeptical about the outcome of the procedure and offer consumers to check the offers of the savings banks *.

With material from the AFP

*Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-02-25

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.