An 88-year-old man applied to his bank for a new credit card. The bank turned him down. He had an ‘unfavourable repayment prognosis’ due to his age, as he was expected to pass away soon. Sometimes life writes good scripts: the bank had obviously not realised that the man was a retired federal judge who obviously enjoyed not only claiming his credit card, but also damages of 3,000 euros for the age discrimination he had suffered.
Age is not a factual reason for refusal; due to the judge's good pension, it was not to be expected that he would leave behind an over-indebted inheritance (Kassel District Court, judgement of 7 September 2023, AZ 435 C 777/23); he was awarded the 3,000.00 euros.
