Many previous bank fee increases related to checking accounts were legally ineffective. This was recently determined by the Federal Court of Justice. But bank customers who want money back sometimes experience unusual things.
Dhe bank customer from Weimar is appalled. Ingolf Werner had wanted to ask for money back from his bank. Just as thousands of other bank customers are currently doing. After all, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled at the end of April that many earlier bank fee increases were ineffective if the banks had taken customer silence as approval. The bank customer had used one of the sample letters offered by consumer advocates and Stiftung Warentest. And what is his bank writing back to him, the direct bank DKB? She threatens to close the account if he does not withdraw his request. The man is upset: “The bank cannot respond with a notice of termination if I demand the return of fees from the past that have been wrongly collected.”
The reason given by the bank was that he was listed as a business customer – and the decision of the BGH only applied to consumers. But the relevant account is his private account, says the man; even if, as a self-employed person at the bank, he also has business accounts and a club account from the Friends of the Musikhochschule in Weimar. But now to change the current account for a refund of a few hundred euros, with everything that is attached – that seems to him to be too time-consuming.