The testers from Finanztest had taken on 152 banks with 380 account models to check the costs. The result: 14 accounts are completely free, 21 become free if certain conditions are met. These conditions can be, for example, a monthly incoming payment of a certain amount or a fixed incoming payment coupled with securities transactions. At Finanztest Heike Nicodemus is the project manager in the Investment, Pension, Loans and Taxes team.
“Basically, a current account should always match his very personal usage behavior. Free is of course always great. We say: If the account costs more than 60 euros a year, then you should check what the reason is and, if necessary, change something about the fact. ” Heike Nicodemus, financial test
Check change of account model
The expert sees three ways to reduce costs: Check your own behavior once, because some individual services cost extra, for example if customers have an online account but also submit paper transfers. If you can’t save anything here, you should consider changing the account model – i.e. ask the financial institution whether there is a cheaper model for your personal needs. The third option is to switch banks.
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