As we have reiterated over and over again, the choice of a current account is truly fundamental, especially when young people enter the world of work and begin to have their first experiences in this regard. One of the parameters for choosing a good current account undoubtedly lies in the management costs, which are often practically zero in the case of the under 30s, at least for most banks.
As in any self-respecting contract, however, banks are no exception to the unilateral contractual changes that can sometimes occur, as happens for telephone companies when their monthly rates vary.
This is the case recently with Widibain which some customers allegedly complained about the unilateral contractual changes imposed by the bank itself, even ending up in court following a specific dispute.
In fact, one of Banca Widiba’s customers allegedly appealed to the Financial Banking Arbitrator, in this case making use of the right to keep the current account free forever, as the bank itself had declared in the past. In this case the Financial Banking Arbitrator had expressed his support for the account holders who claimed their right, arguing the incompatibility of the new costs declared by the bank, deemed incompatible with the provisions of the unilateral changes to the contract.
Bank Widiba would thus have brought this specific case to the court of Milan: the company would in fact argue for the complete legitimacy of the modification of the contractual costs relating to current account management expenses, with particular reference to article 118 on the matter.
The current situation
The account holder in question, it seems, would paradoxically have to pay the legal fees for the specific case, despite having previously been considered an injured party by the Financial Banking Arbitrator himself.
Banca Widiba’s customers felt deceived by the company’s initial slogan, which read free of charge on the current account itself. In this case the increase was from zero euro to 7.50 euro each quarter, which led customers to appeal against the bank. We do not yet know the reason behind which Widiba bank has decided to sue the individual account holder in this case, and the lawyer of the same bank has not commented on the matter at the moment.
The situation in this case, as you can well understand, is really complicated and not easy to resolve. At this point we just have to see what the next updates will be in this regard between the two parties, which we are sure will not be long in coming over the next few weeks or months.
