Once upon a time it was free: According to the experience of Stiftung Warentest, this is also increasingly true for the Girocard. At the same time, cheap checking accounts are becoming rarer.
Banks and savings banks continue to tighten the fee screw. "The Girocard is now often priced," said "Finanztest" expert Heike Nicodemus. According to an evaluation by the magazine "Finanztest" by Stiftung Warentest, the number of free or low-cost current accounts has continued to fall. Despite rising interest rates in the euro area, Nicodemus does not currently see any signs of an imminent renaissance of the free current account, which institutes use to solicit customer deposits in times of high interest rates. "The trend is currently going in the other direction."
In an evaluation of 432 models from 165 banks and savings banks, the testers found just 12 salary or pension accounts that are free for online customers without any conditions. A year ago there were 14. Among others, these are the "Edeka account" of the Edekabank, the "Smartkonto" of the C24 Bank, the "Girokonto/ Girokonto for active customers" of the DKB, the "Bestgiro" of Santander or the "Girodirekt " of the PSD Bank Nuremberg.
As long as a current account does not cost more than 60 euros over the year, Stiftung Warentest believes that is fine. Finally, the bank handles bookings and provides ATMs and secure technology for online banking. According to the evaluation, the total number of free and inexpensive checking accounts fell from 91 last year to 79. The most expensive account management evaluated costs 360 euros a year.
Nicodemus sees a need for improvement in the mandatory fee information for customers. "The information on the homepage is often very difficult to find and often not up-to-date."
Stiftung Warentest defines the following as free: no basic fee, no fee for account statements, bookings, Girocard and when withdrawing money from machines in the bank’s own pool, and no conditions such as regular receipt of money and salary in a certain amount. A model person was used as the basis for the evaluation. She gets a regular salary, keeps the account online and uses it on an average basis.
Last year, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) set limits on fee increases insofar as credit institutions must obtain the consent of their customers when changing general terms and conditions. Financial institutions therefore had to subsequently ask for approval of the current fees. In addition, bank customers can reclaim fees that institutions have charged without their explicit consent, the court decided on April 27, 2021.
However, there are still problems with the implementation of the verdict. In the second quarter of the current year, the financial supervisory authority BAFIN received around 200 complaints from consumers in connection with the BGH decision, as the authority announced on request. In particular, the question of the reimbursement of fees was discussed. In the first three months, BAFIN counted 750 complaints.
According to Nicodemus, the judgment means a great deal of additional work for banks and savings banks. "Each customer has to be written to individually. However, it cannot be ruled out that the institute will take the opportunity and continue to screw up the fees." If customers do not agree to the changes to the General Terms and Conditions, the credit institutions can terminate them. "In this way, they may also get rid of customers who are rather difficult to deal with," the expert suspects.
Despite rising interest rates in the euro zone, Nicodemus does not initially assume that banks and savings banks will soon be able to increasingly advertise customers for investments with free checking accounts. "Given the general increase in costs, I don't expect any reversal in the next two to three years." The situation is different with youth accounts for pupils, trainees or students, most of which are already free of charge. "This is about retaining those customers until they make their own money."
Stiftung Warentest, which currently operates a free website for checking current accounts on behalf of the state, evaluated the conditions of salary and pension accounts valid until August 31st. All nationwide institutes as well as direct and church banks, all Sparda and PSD banks as well as the largest savings banks and Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks in each federal state were examined. According to the information, they cover around 70 percent of the market in terms of total assets.
The consumer portal Biallo has 31 free checking accounts (as of August 12). According to the information, price and service lists and websites of more than 1,200 banks and savings banks were examined.
How to switch accounts
