Now the time is up
The grace period is over: Postbank customers had until May 1 to agree to the new terms and conditions before the bank’s account termination takes effect. Anyone who is still using the formerly free checking account now has to pay automatically.
Postbank terminates current accounts: what customers need to know
The letters of termination are out: Customers who have not agreed to the changes to Postbank’s terms and conditions as a customer should have already received the relevant letter of termination. April 30 was the deadline for termination Giro-plus accounts whose holders have not agreed to the new terms and conditions.
According to Handelsblatt information from February, there was one mid five-digit number of customers affected. However, since receiving the letter of termination, not every possibility of staying at Postbank has expired. “But we would like to keep you as our customer. In the second step, we offer you the conclusion of a new current account contract with our current prices and conditions.
The effectiveness of the termination can also be prevented by agreeing to the new terms and conditions, this is possible in writing or online (source: Handelsblatt). If you don’t want that, you have to be careful: From May 1st, the affected current accounts, for which customers have not paid any account management fees since January due to the lack of consent, will be transferred to accounts that are subject to a fee.
This means that anyone who continues to use the current account after April 30th – for example by making a transfer, withdrawing money or paying by card – automatically agrees to the new conditions. Then monthly account management fees of 5.90 euros are due.
Deutsche Bank promises more layoffs
On the other hand, anyone who leaves the account unused and still does not agree to the terms and conditions will actually be terminated in the end. Affected accounts can away 30 June will no longer be used. The reason for the dismissals is the judgment of the Federal Court of Justice from last year. Since then, banks are no longer allowed to introduce changes to the general terms and conditions, such as new account management fees, without the active consent of the customers concerned.
Anyone who uses online banking should know these security procedures:
“We don’t want to lose any customers and end some legal uncertainty for both sides,” said a spokesman for Deutsche Bank, to which Postbank also belongs. But Deutsche Bank is also preparing “similar steps for current accounts”. Norisbank now also charges account management fees for existing customers.
