Consumer advice center advice
Formal error: How to cancel your old Rürup contract
November 25, 2025 – 15.05Reading time: 2 minutes
Rürup’s contracts were considered irrevocable – but many contained serious errors. Those affected may be able to get out completely.
The Hamburg consumer advice center advises consumers who have a Rürup contract to check it for possible revocation. According to consumer advocates, many policies contain incorrect cancellation instructions. This gives the contractor the opportunity to get out of this non-cancelable contract.
“Rürup contracts are often expensive, non-transparent and ultimately provide very low pensions,” says Sandra Klug of the Hamburg Consumer Center. “If the cancellation policy is wrong, cancellation is often the last chance to escape an unattractive contract and get paid back.”
Based on several court rulings, consumers can still cancel contracts made from 2008 onwards, even years later, if the insurance company did not provide correct information about the right to rescission at that time. In more than half of the Rürup pension contracts checked by the Hamburg consumer advice center, the instructions were wrong.
Rürup pensions – also known as basic pensions – are often advertised as having tax advantages. In fact, from the point of view of the Hamburg consumer advice center, the product is not suitable for many people. Paid-in capital is tied up until the start of the retirement period and then only paid in installments.
To recover the contributions you have paid through a monthly pension alone, you usually have to live for a very long time – often past the age of 90, depending on the pension factors. Only after this do actual profits emerge. This is due to the principle of collective risk compensation: those who live longer than statistically expected will benefit, while those who die earlier often do not get their capital back in full.
