The Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court has declared the "coin fee clause" in the terms and conditions of a bank to be invalid.* The fee of €7.50 for depositing coins is too high - compared to the costs incurred by the bank. Since bank customers would otherwise be disadvantaged, such costs may no longer be standardized in the future.
The Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe has declared the so-called "coin fee clause" in a bank's terms and conditions to be illegal. According to this, customers were supposed to pay a flat fee of 7.50 euros for depositing coins. Compared to the incurred costs, this amount was deemed too high by the court. Generally, a financial institution can charge a fee for payment services, but only within a certain legal framework. Therefore, the deposit of coin money is also considered a payment service. Since the groundbreaking introduction of the Cash Pricing module in 2015, ALVARA AG has been offering a legally compliant solution for the pricing of cash disposal.
"Our customers benefit from the fact that our Cash Pricing module is already legally compliant," explains Bernd Hohlfeld, Chairman of ALVARA. "We have consciously opted from the beginning for amount-dependent or quantity-dependent pricing, rather than a flat rate."
The Cash Pricing module makes it possible to constantly transfer account and safe bag data, allowing their integration with count results and the final creation of booking files. The tool also configures and manages fee models.
In light of the ongoing low-interest rates and the associated cost and margin pressure, it is all the more important for banks and savings banks to generate revenue. Therefore, financial institutions are increasingly involving the end customers in the high costs for cash supply and disposal through intelligent pricing models. With its innovative and forward-looking solutions, ALVARA supports financial institutions in this endeavor.