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And the culprits of that magic disappeared as if they were behind a screen of smoke. That magic has also taken place with other financial institutions. On that subject, I wanted to tell my story of 13 euros, which in itself would be very irrelevant if it were not for that part of the greatest magic of the ‘foci pokus’.
My goal is to draw attention to the injustice into which I understand that many people have fallen. Just because the amounts are small, there was no great outrage. Who wants to waste time fighting for a few euros with the bank. Although a few euros per person, but many euros per bank, which you receive without providing any services.
So the story itself is like this. I had a bank account and card, but I didn’t use them for a long time. The balance on the bank’s web portal was zero all that time. But when I got to close the accounts, I discovered my arrears of € 13, which I had to cover to close the accounts.
So the focus changes and my zero becomes minus 13 euros. They explained that it happened because I kept charging a subscription fee for the bank basket. Wat all and history.
Perhaps I would like to add that the bank, when calculating the indebtedness during that time, had not informed me in any way. In online banking, the account balance was zero, with no messages, either on the bank’s website or in an email. I did not receive it by mail or phone.
But during the same period, I received offers to buy other services from this bank. When the bank manager asked me why I was not informed about the debt I was accumulating, I replied that the bank did not have the technical capacity to do so.
Of course, I was very surprised that our banks are so unable to provide a single number or send a message when all other service providers can. At least for now, I have not had to deal with a situation where some service providers calculate my arrears and do not provide me with information.
I realized that this event is not a mistake or just something that happened to me. I decided to file a request with the relevant authorities to stop, in my opinion, the practice of banking tricks. I applied to the Bank of Lithuania, which oversees our financial institutions. This advised me to contact the bank first with a complaint, and only after receiving a response, to them.
Of course, I received a large letter from the bank with a negative response that I will not be returned 13 euros and that it will not end its practice of not informing me of accumulated arrears. The bank wrote: “Commenting on the applicant’s allegations that the bank did not report the accumulated indebtedness, the bank stated that it did not have the technical capacity to display the client’s indebtedness for payment service plans at the Internet bank But this does not mean that the applicant did not know that he had to pay a commission.
Then I applied to the Bank of Lithuania, from which I received a half-novel response after a long time, the essence of which can be found in the following sentences of his letter: “It should be noted that the legislation does not regulate the procedure for providing information to consumers about commission arrears. and the terms of the agreements concluded by the bank …
… neither the Account Agreement nor the Payment Service Rules and the Terms of Use of the Service Plans stipulate the bank’s obligation to inform the applicant separately about the commission or to indicate such debt in the Internet bank. “
So my claims were rejected and I chose my € 13, but the moral of the story is this. This practice will continue, and banks, who continue to use their enormous monetary power, will create those tricks every day.
***
Lina Chlebauskaitė, Senior Legal Advisor, Bank of Lithuania, Supervision Division of Payment and Credit Services, stated that the Bank of Lithuania receives such complaints quite infrequently. Similar to the bank charges mentioned in the letter, they were introduced in all banks and people were informed about it.
“Currently, the Bank of Lithuania receives such consumer complaints very rarely. Their number has decreased significantly since 2017. December. Announcing the position of the Bank of Lithuania on the fact that credit institutions should actively exercise the right granted by legal acts to close unused bank accounts in the country of inactive bank accounts.
The inactivity of a bank account is related to the absence of transactions in that bank account, i. and. A bank account is considered inactive if it does not involve the disbursement, transfer or deposit of funds. In accordance with the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania, banks have the right to close a bank account that the customer no longer uses when there are no funds in the customer’s account for more than a year and there have been no operations on the account the client’s. If a basic bank account is opened for a customer but the customer does not use it, banks can close that bank account only if no payment transactions have been executed on the customer for more than 24 consecutive months.
The monthly bank account administration fee is applied by most of the country’s banks. Bank account management includes activities related to managing a bank account that are necessary to ensure that customers have access to the bank account and related services at any time (for example, managing the customer and their account details, storage, processing of information on customer account transactions, preparation and presentation, adequate preparation of internal systems, ensuring the availability of an online bank account, etc.).
Regardless of whether and to what extent the customer actively uses the bank account, the bank regularly performs the bank account management actions mentioned above, therefore, it is entitled to apply a previously agreed bank account management fee to customers, even if there are no funds in the customer’s bank account. and / or if the client has not used said bank account for some time due to circumstances beyond his control.
The legislation does not prohibit banks from charging fees for services rendered when there are no funds in the customer’s bank account, and allows banks, like any other creditor, to require customers to cover the accumulated arrears for the services provided. To form a good practice, the Bank of Lithuania recommends that banks do not accumulate debts with customers whose bank accounts are inactive, but, as mentioned above, such bank actions are legal.
Therefore, it is recommended that users of the services be more active and, in cases where they no longer need bank accounts and do not intend to use them in the future, request banks to close them, “recommended Lina Chlebauskaitė.
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