German savers have had to be satisfied with mini interest for years. In the past few months the situation has worsened again: under certain conditions, more than 400 banks charge fees only for parking savings. But there is a way to reduce these costs.
For a long time now, savers have been annoyed that they hardly get any interest on fixed-term deposits and overnight deposits. Now it gets worse: the money in the account can even get less. Almost all major banks charge savers extra fees. Whether Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Sparkassen or Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken: If you park large sums of money in your accounts there, you often have to pay for it.
However, many financial institutions grant tax exemptions. This means: only amounts that are above these limits are chargeable. Many banks set the limit at 25,000 or 50,000 euros.
The Verivox comparison portal regularly evaluates the conditions of around 1,300 banks and savings banks in Germany. The following table shows 423 banks that are already charging negative interest or custody fees. The quickest way to find out whether your bank is among them is to go to Enter parts of the name in the search window above the table (e.g. “Witten” for Volksbank Bochum-Witten).
With these banks, customers pay penalty interest even with low credit balances
Small investors and users of current accounts on which they do not park large amounts of money are normally not affected by negative interest rates. But in this segment, too, more and more institutes are starting to bill their customers for negative interest from the first cent of credit.
Use generous banks
However, many financial institutions still spare deposits of up to 100,000 euros from penalty fees. If you choose a bank that offers particularly high exemptions, you can protect at least part of your capital from penalty interest.
However, the banks can decide individually whether to offer interested new customers different conditions. So there is no guarantee for the rates mentioned here. Sometimes, however, with a little negotiating skills, one or the other tenth of the interest can still be obtained.
Alternatively, savers can consider parking their money specifically at banks that charge relatively low negative interest rates – for example at “Volksbank eG – Die Gestalterbank”, which “only” 0.24 percent required. But this strategy also harbors risks because the financial institutions can adjust their terms upwards at any time if too much money flows into them. Many also do this regularly.
Here is an overview of the particularly generous banks that give their customers high exemptions before they charge negative interest:
The data basis for the banks and banking groups mentioned are data available online, compiled by the comparison portal Verivox – supplemented by information from the banks and information from consumer advocates, other media and comparison portals such as Biallo.de.