Despite several rate hikes, hundreds of banks’ customers continue to get nothing. Local savings banks and Volksbanks in particular are stingy. An overview.
3.00 percent for new customers – this is currently the strongest offer if you want to park your money in a call money account. But many regional banks and savings banks are a long way from the BMW Bank offer. What’s more, you pay no interest at all. This is shown by an evaluation of the comparison portal Verivox, which is available from t-online.
Accordingly, almost every third bank offers 0 percent interest on overnight money. Especially with the regional banks, savers often get nothing. For example, 96 of the 283 savings banks evaluated do not pay interest on overnight money. In the case of the regional Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken, Sparda-Banken and PSD-Banken, there are even 123 out of 332 institutes.
All the same, there are signs of a move away from zero interest rates. Since the last evaluation at the end of March, the proportion of savings banks without interest on call money has fallen from 40 to 34 percent, and that of the cooperative banks from 46 to 37 percent.
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Higher interest rates for nationwide offers
In contrast, zero interest rates are rare for overnight money accounts available nationwide. Of 73 banks in the Verivox evaluation, only four do not pay interest. And the gap between the national and regional offers also widens when it comes to interest rates: While savers receive an average of 0.97 percent interest from nationwide banks, savings bank customers have to be content with an average of 0.22 percent. At the regional cooperative banks it is only 0.19 percent.
“Many regional financial institutions are taking their time passing on the rising interest rates to their customers,” says Verivox Managing Director Oliver Maier. In addition, the high inflation gnaws at the savings, it loses value. The average real interest rate for overnight money offers nationwide, for example, is currently minus 6.22 percent. The real interest rate is the interest rate on savings deposits after deducting the rate of inflation.
To the method
Verivox continuously evaluates the conditions shown on the websites of around 1,300 banks. All banks with overnight money offers that publish their interest rates online were included in the current analysis. There are banks that do not disclose their interest rates freely – including possibly others with zero interest rates. The conditions for an investment sum of 10,000 euros were evaluated. Interest rates have been rounded to two decimal places. Banks with an overnight interest rate of 0.001 percent were thus assigned to the institutes with zero interest. In the regional sector, Verivox distinguishes between savings banks and cooperative banks. There are individual institutions in both groups of institutes that offer their overnight allowances throughout Germany and have therefore been assigned to the nationwide offers. The reporting date for the evaluation was April 27, 2023.
What can a money market account do?
With a money market account, you can put money aside that you don’t know when you’ll need. Because if you need to access it at short notice, that’s no problem. You can withdraw the money at any time via a reference account – usually your checking account – within one day.
However, the interest on the call money account can change again and again. This distinguishes call money from fixed deposits, where you secure interest for a specific investment period. During this time, however, you will not be able to access your credit balance with the fixed deposit.
