Thanks to the interest rate turnaround heralded by the ECB, the prospects for savers are improving noticeably. However, only if they park their savings on the right call money account. Because two out of three financial institutions still pay 0.00 percent interest on the credit.
Although the European Central Bank (ECB) has increased the so-called main refinancing rate to 2.5 percent so far, not all savers have benefited from the interest rate turnaround. According to a recent analysis by the comparison portal Verivox, a clear majority of banks still do not pay any interest on credit balances on their call money accounts.
Of the 626 banks and savings banks evaluated, 397 have an overnight interest rate of 0.00 percent. On the other hand, some banks are outdoing each other in the competition for new customers with ever higher overnight interest rates.
Regional credit institutions often skimp on interest rates. At three out of four local savings banks (74 percent), overnight deposits do not yield any interest income. This proportion is somewhat lower among the cooperative banks such as the local Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken and the Sparda banks. 65 percent of the regional cooperative banks do not pay any call money interest.
Zero interest rates are rarer at banks with a nationwide call money offer. Of these, 15 percent offer their customers no interest. The average interest rate for them is currently 0.54 percent. This means that interest rates in this market segment have increased roughly tenfold since the first ECB interest rate hike. However, it should not go unmentioned that the inflation rates in the euro zone and in Germany are almost unchanged, which means that the interest rates on savings are still very negative in real terms.
According to the study, top banks based in other European countries pay up to 2.20 percent. Across the EU, credit balances of up to EUR 100,000 per bank and customer are protected by statutory deposit insurance. In the event of a bank failure, savers would be compensated from the deposit protection fund of the Member State in which their bank is based. At 1.25 percent, Ford Bank currently offers the highest overnight interest rate among German banks, which applies equally to new and existing customers.
Consorsbank is currently making the offer with the highest interest rates for new customers. It pays 2.1 percent on the call money and guarantees this interest rate for 6 months.
Daily money accounts in comparison
