Up to 334 euros per year: With the basic account, poorer people are often cashed in

Actually, basic accounts should also enable economically weak people to access cashless payment transactions.

Up to 334 euros per year: With the basic account, poorer people are often cashed in

Actually, basic accounts should also enable economically weak people to access cashless payment transactions. That's law. But it is precisely the poor who have to pay a disproportionate amount for the current account, as a current study by Warentest shows.

The basic account is intended to enable people with very little and irregular income to participate in cashless payment transactions. But banks and savings banks have sometimes drastically increased the fees for the basic account. Thus, the account for poorer people is usually more expensive than for salary and pension recipients.

In 24 cases, the account management in the branch costs more than 200 euros a year, the most expensive bank even charges 334.30 euros. This is shown by a current study of 222 account models at 141 financial institutions by Stiftung Warentest. Accordingly, some of the costs are higher than for the first examination five years ago.

According to the test, many financial institutions have raised the monthly basic price, the price for paper transfers and for the Girocard (formerly EC card). At some banks, several items even became more expensive. The Pommersche Volksbank, for example, increased the monthly basic price from EUR 2.39 to EUR 7.99. The bank raised the costs for paper-based transfers from 0.44 euros to 2 euros and for the Girocard from 5 euros to 12 euros. As a result, the annual price for branch accounts has risen to EUR 180.38 (from EUR 104.50) and for online accounts to EUR 112.48 (from EUR 96.80).

There is no longer a free basic account for account management in the branch. Here the GLS Bank and the KD-Bank Bank für Kirche und Diakonie are the cheapest with costs of just over 60 euros per year. With the other banks, the online account is often cheaper than the account management in the branch. ING, KT Bank and VR Bank Dreieich-Offenbach even offer a free model for online account management.

The goods test determined the highest costs at the Volksbank eG Die Gestalterbank - 334.30 euros per year for branch customers. The Sparkasse Saarbrücken is also taking action: the annual price for the model customer with the Classic 2.0 basic account rose by almost 100 euros to 264.80 euros.

Banks usually justify the high price with an additional effort for advice and opening compared to the conventional current account. Unfortunately, the corresponding law only states that the price should be based on the usual market rates and should be reasonable. The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) has repeatedly complained that this vulnerability means that the fees are constantly increasing. This would give people a legal right to an account, but they could hardly afford it. The current law leaves the banks too much leeway.

This is how the account switch works