Bremen.If you take out a loan, you usually pay on it. Namely interest. But it also works the other way around. Again and again there are advertisements for loans with “negative interest”. Consumers borrow money from banks in the form of a loan and pay back less than they got.
But what looks so attractive also has its pitfalls. “Brokers are often interposed with negative interest loans and these brokers do not give away money out of charity,” says Annabel Oelmann, board member of the Bremen consumer center. They are concerned with the data of the consumers so that they can later make customized offers.
Duygu Damar, research assistant at the Institute for Financial Services (iff) in Hamburg, calls minus interest credit offers a marketing strategy by intermediaries who usually work online.
Currently, negative interest loans are mainly offered as instant loans up to an amount of 1000 euros. But as with any loan request, the same applies to a negative interest loan: The bank that ultimately grants the loan checks the creditworthiness – i.e. the probability that consumers will be able to repay the loan. For this, the creditworthiness is often requested from a credit agency such as the Schufa. “This means that there must be a good credit rating, including a regular income,” says Oelmann. The self-employed and retirees are often excluded from negative interest credit offers from the outset.
The bottom line is that there are the same hurdles here as with other consumer loans. As a rule, it is digital providers who have negative interest loans in their portfolios. They pay commissions to the intermediaries, which is why they have an interest in lending as much as possible.
In the meantime, however, promotional banks such as KfW are also tendering promotional loans with minus interest – in order to promote solar systems or energy-efficient renovations, for example. “These promotional loans are granted by the house banks, which in turn can calculate their own margins,” explains Oelmann. This ultimately means that a slightly positive interest rate falls on the loan.
Limit around 1000 euros
Apart from promotional loans from KfW: “Negative interest loans could be an option for those who are in a temporary shortage,” says Damar. But consumers cannot take in more than 1000 euros. In order to apply for such a loan, interested parties have to disclose a lot of personal data. “That could be information on other loans, savings contracts, insurance and maintenance obligations,” Oelmann lists.
This often requires a look into the current account. “Interested parties must be aware that they are paying with their sensitive data when they request a loan,” emphasizes the consumer advocate. Depending on the general terms and conditions (GTC), other financial institutions and credit intermediaries that cooperate with the online portals can also receive the data.
In practice, consumers have to be prepared for the following: After applying for a negative interest loan, they regularly receive several different loan offers from the intermediaries that do not constitute negative interest loans. The calculation behind it: “The brokers hope that consumers will conclude larger loans through them in the future,” explains Oelmann. mr
© Mannheimer Morgen, Wednesday, January 27th, 2021
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