Women pay more interest on loans than men

Berlin. The comparison portal Verivox has found that women have to pay more interest than men when taking out a loan. For men, the average interest rate for a loan agreement concluded via the comparison portal is 3.6 percent. Women paid an average of 3.85 percent interest.

In Germany, women are still paid significantly less than men on average. This is also their undoing elsewhere: The comparison portal Verivox found out that women have to pay more interest than men when taking out a loan.

For the study, Verivox evaluated 300,000 installment loan requests. The result: for men, the average interest rate for a loan agreement concluded via the comparison portal is 3.6 percent. Women have to dig deeper into their pockets. They paid an average of 3.85 percent interest – that’s around seven percent more.

Salary is the most important criterion for creditworthiness

However, women are not only at a disadvantage when it comes to the interest burden because of their lower earnings. Verivox has also found that women receive a financing commitment much less frequently. While men received at least one bank offer in 71 percent of the cases queried, the rate for female borrowers was only 64 percent. In addition, men can borrow more money from the bank. The average loan amount is 18 percent higher for them than for women.

“Due to their often lower salary, women are at a disadvantage when taking out a loan, because security and the amount of income are among the most important criteria for banks when checking creditworthiness,” says Oliver Maier, Managing Director of Verivox Finanzvergleich GmbH. And the difference in income is enormous: on average, Verivox customers earned 23 percent less, which corresponds to a monthly wage gap of more than 600 euros.

If you want to save on financing, you can also take out the loan together with another person with your own salary. The second person does not necessarily have to be your spouse or life partner. Family members or close friends could also be considered, according to the comparison portal.

Joint borrowing reduces the risk of default for the bank

The improved credit rating reduces the default risk for the financial institution. This allows the bank to provide the loan more cheaply. On Verivox average, the loan interest rate has fallen by more than 30 percent, the company reports.

According to Verivox, only a few people made use of the possibility of joint borrowing. Only every fourth loan agreement is concluded in pairs. Even among married customers, almost 60 percent applied for their financing alone.

The question that often arises: What happens if the two borrowers part ways? Then a debt restructuring can help to create a clear financial division. But banks usually charge a fee for the early redemption of the loan – up to one percent of the outstanding balance.

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