Consumer advocates do not want to accept the behavior of some credit institutions in the dispute over account fees without a fight.
You have to see whether individual cases become a scam to threaten consumers with illegal account cancellations, said the head of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv), Klaus Müller, of the German Press Agency in Berlin.
"In this respect, my appeal to the financial sector is very clear: You can also gamble away your trust."
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled at the end of April that banks must obtain the consent of their customers in the event of changes to general terms and conditions.
Credit institutions now have to ask for approval of current fees in retrospect.
In addition, customers can claim back fees that were charged without their explicit consent.
"You have to do it yourself"
Müller emphasized: "And if we do not see that the inadmissible account fees are reimbursed, then we will go to a second round in court." Banks and savings banks would have to comply with the judgment of the BGH.
“You have to do it yourself,” demanded Müller.
According to the first findings of the vzbv, a savings bank and some smaller cooperative banks have so far taken a claim for reimbursement as an opportunity to terminate the account relationship with the customer.
In the case of the Sparkasse, termination is not permitted in the opinion of the vzbv.
It contradicts the statutory basic service mandate of the savings banks.
At the end of June, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations called on bank customers to report how their bank or savings bank reacted to the BGH ruling.
Accordingly, a four-digit number of consumers has so far followed the call.