After lengthy legal disputes, the Austrian Supreme Court (OGH) has reached a decision on loan processing fees. It concerns fees of the kind that numerous banks have charged when granting property, consumer and mortgage loans.
The decision in essence
According to the assessment of the OGH, such processing fees constitute a gross disadvantage to customers. The reasoning: the fees are non-transparent, and a clear consideration in return is not apparent. It is particularly problematic that the fees increase in proportion to the loan amount, even though the bank’s effort hardly depends on it. With high loans, this leads to considerable additional costs.
Many institutions used similar clauses over the years. Whether the fee can be reclaimed in a specific contract depends on the respective clause and is assessed on a case-by-case basis.
We ensure a discreet and rapid initial assessment to determine whether the fees in your contract are reclaimable.
Ing. Ronald Mechtler, Managing Director of R. M. Prozessfinanzierung GmbH
What to check in your contract
It helps to look at the types of fees and the contract terms:
- Designations such as processing fee, loan fee, transfer or collection charges
- Costs for postage, printed forms, delivery, account management or valuation
- Concluded as a private individual with a bank, for a property, mortgage or consumer loan
- The loan may still be running or already paid off
The processing fees were often between 0.5 and 4 percent of the loan amount. When reviewing contracts, four-digit to low five-digit amounts are regularly found.
Free assessment
Consumers throughout Austria can have their loan contract assessed. The assessment is free of charge and requires no financial advance payment. If successful, R. M. Prozessfinanzierung GmbH retains from 35 percent of the amount obtained, and the remaining amount is paid out to you.
More on this on the page Reclaim loan fees.
Sources
- OGH on loan processing fees · Oberster Gerichtshof · 7 Ob 169/24i