Ungrounded penalty for non-compliance with the credit agre...

The complainant asserted that on 3^th April 2012 the creditor had sent him a reminder to pay an instalment of CZK 329 due in March + CZK 100 for sending the reminder, i.e. CZK 429 in total. The complainant paid the instalment on 12^th April 2012. Although the payment has been credited to the creditor´s account on 13^th April 2012, on 16^th April 2012 the creditor sent another reminder to the complainant to pay CZK 984 (instalment of CZK 329 due in March + CZK 100 for sending the second reminder + penalty for non-payment of the instalment due in March of CZK 200 + 8% of the instalment due in March, i.e. CZK 26 + instalment of CZK 329 due in April). In a phone call an employee of the creditor informed the complainant that as the amount of CZK 429 had not been paid without delay the complainant was obliged to pay the difference of CZK 555, which the complainant did, however in the complaint he claimed the reimbursement of CZK 226. The complainant asserted that the creditor was not entitled to get the amount of CZK 226 (i.e. the penalty for non-payment of the instalment due in March of CZK 200 + 8% of the instalment due in March, i.e. CZK 26) as the instalment had been credited to the creditor´s account on 13^th April 2012 (i.e. on time).

On request of the Financial Arbitrator, the creditor explained that as the complainant had not paid the amount of 429 CZK without delay after receiving the reminder, the money had been credited to its bank account on Friday 13^th April 2012. The account in question serves to receive instalments of multiple clients which means that it is credited with tens of thousands instalments every day which are further credited to the credit accounts of the specific clients during the accounting taking place at night based on variant numbers used for paying the instalments. The instalment of the complainant credited to the bank account of the creditor on 13^th April 2012 has been credited to the complainant´s credit account on Monday 16^th April 2012 due to the weekend delay, i.e. after 15^th April 2012 when the April instalment was due. If the preceding instalments are not paid until the due date of the current instalment the IT system of the creditor automatically generates and sends out a reminder, including the penalty. Due to the upcoming weekend the IT system generated the reminder on 13^th April 2012 already.

During the proceedings the creditor admitted that the complainant paid the amount of CZK 429 on time and reimbursed the complainant of the amount of CZK 226. The complainant has withdrawn its complaint and the Financial Arbitrator terminated the proceedings.