Millions of customers can reclaim account fees from their bank. But who does the stress? Specialized providers do the work for consumers – and reveal which banks are cooperating and which are reluctant.
The ruling of the Federal Court of Justice is actually clear: For years the banks have increased their customers’ checking account fees without asking for the required consent. Therefore, they have to repay too much collected fees, millions of customers are entitled to a reimbursement (Az. XI ZR 26/20).
But even though the verdict is now six months old, apparently many banks are still not paying. Some institutions hold off their customers, others only reimburse partial amounts or put customers under pressure to forego their money, as consumer advocates report. The consumer advice centers have now filed lawsuits against several savings banks, savings banks and Volksbanks that are reluctant to receive reimbursements. And the financial supervisory authority Bafin recently openly threatened consequences if individual institutes did not implement the judgment appropriately.
Customers need to take action
In addition, there is another problem: Anyone who wants to get inadmissibly charged fees back must take action themselves. And that is sometimes complicated. The consumer advice centers do offer sample letters that you can use as a guide. But everyone still has to research individually what they are entitled to. Customers have to look in old statements to see when the fees were increased and calculate how much they can claim back, including interest.
Quite a lot of work, only to get a few euros back in fees in the end. “All banks accept the verdict, but not a single bank proactively compensates their customers. The institutes prefer to have their customers individually calculate what they believe they are getting, and that often fails,” says Daniel Halmer, head of the consumer portal Conny Problem to the point.
Gansel, Justify, Conny – debt collection portals put pressure on them
To solve this dilemma, Conny and other providers offer a service that helps customers get their money. Instead of messing around with the bank themselves, consumers can turn to these portals and have their lawyers and debt collection services done. The principle is known from passenger portals that fight for compensation for canceled flights and withhold part of the sum.
Gansel Rechtsanwälte, for example, currently represents around 3,000 bank customers who want their account fees back. The service is initially free of charge, only if it is successful does Gansel retain 25 percent of the bank fees paid back. In 600 cases, Gansel has already been able to obtain a payment, the highest amounting to 494 euros. On average, customers get back 125 euros. Even if you don’t know how much you are entitled to, you can call in Gansel and leave the calculation of the reimbursement amount to the bank.
Justify’s debt collection model works similarly to Gansel’s. Here, too, the service is initially free of charge; if successful, Justify retains 22.5 percent as a fee. The debt collection service provider has taken on 2,500 cases so far, of which only 5 percent have been completed. “Only a few customers have no repayment claim at all, in the remaining closed cases the banks have paid,” says Justify boss Philipp Volkmer zum star. The average repayment amount is 187 euros.
With the legal tech platform Conny, repayment is even easier than with Gansel and Justify. They recently switched their service to direct payment. Anyone who specifies their claim on the page will immediately receive an individual offer of up to 50 euros from the Conny algorithm. The customer assigns the claim to Conny and the money is immediately on the account – and not later in the event of success. In case of doubt, you get a little less money for this, because Conny can’t be sure whether she can really enforce the demand. When determining the amount of the offer, the algorithm also takes into account, among other things, how stubborn the specific bank is, as Conny boss Halmer in an interview with star betrays.
Some pay, others block
The Postbank, against which the BGH judgment was originally directed, and Fidor-Bank are considered to be cooperative. “At the savings banks, some pay quickly, others are sideways,” says Halmer. A spokesman for Gansel Rechtsanwälte said that so far most of the payments have been received from Postbank, Fidor Bank, numerous savings banks and some Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks. Justify boss Volkmer highlights ING, Flatex and Postbank as cooperative. “Almost all other institutes, such as most of the savings banks, Sparda banks, Volksbanks, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, HypoVereinsbank, etc., are reluctant to correct their mistakes.”
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As a rule, these are claims for the last three calendar years. This means that anyone who registers their claims this year can claim money back retrospectively until January 1, 2018. However, whether the three-year period actually applies is still controversial. Customers may even be able to claim back money for the past ten years, which could easily add up to a few hundred euros per customer.
In order not to have to pay as much as possible, some banks rely not only on thick-skinned, but also on confusion and intimidation, as reported by consumer advocates and debt collection portals. Apparently, it is currently a popular means not only to obtain the necessary approval for higher fees from customers, but at the same time to urge them to forego reimbursement claims.
In some cases, the letters are formulated in such a deterring way that customers would not dare to insist on their rights, says Conny boss Halmer. “Many customers are afraid that the bank will terminate their account if they reclaim fees. However, this is not legally permitted.” He also sees the fight for the reimbursement of bank fees as a matter of principle: “For the individual consumer, the inadmissible fees are only a small thing, but all in all, the whole thing is a great insolence on the part of the banks.”