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Interest on reminder fees

In connection with a major review of the processes and systems, Danske Bank found that the bank have wrongfully charged some customers interest on reminder fees. This happened because the systems were not adjusted to stop interest from being charged on reminder fees when a change was made to the Danish Interest Act in 2005

In Realkredit Danmark, we have identified a similar issue, which includes both interest on reminder fees and debt collection fees. Our initial estimates is that 20.000-40.000 customers may be affected by this issue of wrongful charging of interest on reminder fees or too many fees.  

Customers who have paid interest on reminder fees or too many fees will of course be reimbursed and will receive compensation for the time that the money should have been at their disposal.

FAQ

We are reviewing all reminder fees that we have charged since 2005. Once we have checked whether you have paid interest on a reminder fee, we will contact you as soon as possible.
You do not have to do anything. We will contact all affected customers as soon as possible. We will ensure that all customers will be reimbursed for wrongfully charged interest on reminder fees or too many fees and that they will receive compensation for the time they should have had the money at their disposal.
Affected customers will be reimbursed for the amount of interest that we wrongfully charged on reminder fees. In addition, affected customers will receive compensation for the time they should have had that money at their disposal. We calculate the compensation amount on the basis of the time that has elapsed between the time the request for payment of the reminder fee was made and the time the reminder fee was actually paid.
Because we are paying more than we are legally obliged to, the total payment amount is subject to tax. You must therefore declare the amount on your tax assessment notice (årsopgørelse) in box 20, ‘Anden personlig indkomst’ (other personal income).
The error happened in connection with a change made to the Danish Interest Act in 2005, following which we did not adjust our system to stop interest from being charged on reminder fees. We identified the unlawful collection of interest on reminder fees during our analysis of our processes and systems in connection with the debt collection issue.
The collection of new reminder fees was stopped in September 2020. In order to ensure that this error does not happen again, our IT system is adjusted so that no interest is charged on reminder fees.