Overdraft interest
Overdraft interest (or overdraft commission ) is in the banking a component of credit conditions which, in the overdraft of credit lines , in the overdraft of current accounts without credit line or exceeding the credit period is calculated.
Legal bases
If there are no credit lines or credit limits, current accounts may not be overdrawn without consulting the bank. Credit lines form the maximum limit agreed with the borrower in the credit agreement for the credit drawdown. Credit institutions are therefore not contractually obliged to allow overdrafts on current accounts or overdrafts on these credit lines. If an overdraft is nevertheless tolerated, the credit institutions are entitled to charge a higher interest rate than that for claims within the limit, the so-called overdraft interest. This price differentiation is objectively justified because overdrafts of contractually agreed credit lines regularly cause a higher workload and require a different risk assessment including necessary additional, previously unplanned refinancing . The amount of the overdraft interest is based on Section 315 (3) BGB , whereby the bank bears the burden of proof for the equity of the interest charged.
After the loan agreement has expired, there is no longer any claim to overdraft interest , but instead compensation or default interest . In addition, no overdraft interest may be charged on so-called hidden account overdrafts . If customers rely on an account balance information at the ATM or are prompted by account statements with non-“valued” sales to use bank credit services through unwanted account overdrafts that they would not have used if the account balance was correct, there is no claim to overdraft interest. The banks have reacted to this case law by not disclosing the book balance or by not calculating overdraft interest.
Whether a service is interest or not does not depend on its designation (“fee, commission, expenses”), but depends on its real economic purpose. Overdraft interest is an interest because it contains calculation elements related to the term and amount.
Assessment basis
The assessment basis is the overdrawn loan amount and the period of overdraft. As a credit types for overdraft charges come overdraft , overdraft facility , Lombard credit , revolving credit or stand-by credit in question because in these utilization fluctuate and can therefore exceed the credit line as well (such as interest capitalization of interest on borrowings ).
calculation
Overdraft interest is calculated cumulatively to the debit interest . They do not represent additional borrowing interest, but are an independent interest within the scope of the permitted price differentiation for the additional work, the possibly different risk assessment and the necessary refinancing. Your calculation begins with the first day of the overdraft of the current account or the credit limit and ends after repayment of the overdraft.