This study of the practice of consumer credit is based on household interviews, bank File analysis, questionnaires to debtors, and analysis of court judgments. All types of credit were covered except for housing loans. The economic significance of consumer credit in the Federal Republic of Germany has grown considerably. In 1979, 48% of FRG households had consumer credit .debts. For consumer bank credits, the average debt of these households was DM 10,550 at the end of 1980. The frequency of consumer credit is above average among salaried and young households. Nowadays the direct instalment credit (credit without legal connection to a sale) is the most important credit form (72%). Simple instalment sale has decreased (to 9%). In almost every case credit is granted only against securities.
Only every fiftieth contract is terminated by the creditor. Reasons for interruption of a credit agreement leading to termination of the credit contract are: unemployment (58%), sickness/accident, divorce. The central issue in court judgements was the question of the violation of moral principles ("usury") in credit contracts. The special consumer protection norms of the Instalment Sales Act seldom apply. On c o m m i s s i o n o f the F e d e r a l Ministry o f Justice the f o r m e r Social Science Research G r o u p at the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and Private I n t e r n a t i o n a l L a w in H a m b u r g I c o n d u c t e d an empirical s t u d y on the practice o f c o n s u m e r credit (Holzscheck, H 6 r m a n n , & Daviter, 1982). As a basis for the analysis 1,881 households in the Federal Republic o f G e r m a n y and West-Berlin were personally interviewed during 1979 and 1980. A total o f 3,703 b a n k files were analysed; i n f o r m a t i o n was gathered f r o m a l m o s t 4 0 0 credit institutions or credit institution affiliates and 333 recipients o f default s u m m o n s by means o f a postal survey; 182 court j u d g m e n t s f r o m three court instances were evaluated. F o r the p u r p o s e o f the study c o n s u m e r credit was defined, under consideration o f all m a n i f e s t a t i o n s o f c o n s u m e r credit, as the professional provision o f spending p o w e r and its usage for personal c o n s u m p t i o n , limited in time. Housing loans were n o t t a k e n into consideration in this study.