A ruling by a Court in Athens put an end to the so-called “illegal” imposition of a monthly charge of 0.80 euros on deposit accounts of National Bank customers.
The move of National Bank to automatically and without the consent of customers to converted their bank accounts from “simple savings/simple current” to “privilege account” with a monthly charge of 0.80 euros last year had caused strong reactions.
The Bank had attempted to justify this move, however, it did not “convince” customers and consumer associations who appealed to the courts, demanding the obvious, namely the lifting of this horizontal – non-compliant and illegal practice.
Following a lawsuit filed by Greek Consumers’ Association for the Quality of Life EKPOIZO, the Multi-Member Court of First Instance of Athens, with its decision number 128/2026, prohibits National Bank from imposing a monthly charge of 0.80 euros on its customers who maintain “Simple Savings” or “Simple Current” accounts with it.
The decision was characterized as temporarily enforceable, meaning its implementation is immediate.
However, the National Bank in its announcement, claimed that EKPOIZO is “distorting” the content of the court decision.
Misleading information
As the consumer association EKPOIZO emphasized in an announcement on Thursday, the banking institution had sent letters during the previous year informing consumers who maintained the above deposit accounts, notifying them that it would convert them into “privilege” accounts, that is, that they would be able to carry out a series of transactions free of charge. For this reason, their accounts would be charged 0.80 euros per month, regardless of whether consumers made use of the alleged privileges.
The Multi-Member Court of First Instance ruled that this information was misleading as certain transactions that the Bank claimed would now be offered free of charge were already free.
After the court decision, EKPOIZO but also holders of bank accounts at the National Bank of Greece, are wondering whether the Bank will it return the money it illegally collected from its customers.
PS If I’m not wrong, the monthly fee was implemented by all systemic banks in Greece when the government forced them to stop collecting a fee – 0,60 euros- from money transfers/payment of bills to the tax office and utility companies.
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we give the bank money they profit from that then they charge you for helping them ,what a rip off
You are correct KTG. For example Alpha Bank imposed a monthly fee but did not collect it if you hold more than €10,000 in the account. Chania Bank has not done anything and also still pays a small interest on the deposit, so is truly treating it as a savings account, even though I use it like a current account.
It’s like a water filled balloon. You stamp down on one part and another part pops up. The government stamped down on the transaction fee and the monthly charge popped up. If they stamp down on that something else will pop up.