The amount of money Germans borrow from is unevenly distributed. At the top are the higher-income federal states.
You have to be able to afford high debts: if you earn more, you obviously get more on credit – and the loan is also approved. This is shown by the current credit and debt atlas of the comparison portal Verivox, which is available to t-online in advance.
According to this, every fifth borrower already has ongoing consumer debt at the time the loan is taken out. The average level of debt is highest in Hesse and Hamburg, at over 23,000 euros.
In contrast, average debt tends to be lower in the lower-income new federal states. The demand for loans in Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt is highest.
Hesse ahead of Hamburg and Baden-Württemberg
On average, Hesse (EUR 23,367) and Hamburg (EUR 23,122) have the highest level of debt among Verivox customers with current loans. The income of borrowers is also particularly high in both federal states. In Hessen it is on average 2,459 euros, in the Elbe metropolis the average net income is 2,343 euros.
Only in Baden-Württemberg and Berlin is the average income slightly higher; and both in the state (EUR 22,901) and in the capital (EUR 22,712) the average debt levels are well above the national average of EUR 21,766.
To the method
For the study, Verivox evaluated all installment loans that were applied for and concluded via the comparison portal from January 2022 up to and including January 2023. In the course of their loan request, interested parties provide information about their income and existing liabilities. This information was evaluated anonymously for the analysis. Real estate loans were left out of the debt.
Lower debt levels in the East
“Anyone who earns well can also take out higher loans,” explains Oliver Maier, Managing Director of Verivox Finanzvergleich GmbH. “The remaining debt that is still outstanding is correspondingly higher when consumers take out another loan.”
The relationship between earnings and the level of debt is also clear at the lower end of the income statistics: the lowest debt levels are recorded by borrowers from the five rather low-income eastern German non-city states of Saxony-Anhalt (EUR 19,702), Saxony (EUR 19,706), Thuringia (EUR 20,273), Mecklenburg- Western Pomerania (20,369 euros) and Brandenburg (20,490 euros).
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Bayern take out the least loans
When it comes to demand for credit, on the other hand, two of these federal states are at the top. If you compare the number of installment loans taken out in the individual federal states to their population, it shows that Brandenburgers take out loans 20 percent more often than consumers on average nationwide. It is followed by Saxony-Anhalt in second place. Here, the demand for credit is 15 percent higher than the overall average of all federal states.
Demand for credit is lowest in Bavaria. The residents of the Free State take out installment loans 11 percent less frequently than the German national average. The demand in the neighboring state of Baden-Württemberg is hardly higher (10 percent below average). The two southernmost federal states bring up the rear in terms of credit demand.
One in five borrowers is already in debt
A fifth of all people who compare installment loans via Verivox already have current liabilities. Of these, a good half have several outstanding loans, and one in four is already paying off at least three ongoing loans.
“Many consumers are not aware that every installment payment also represents a loan. It doesn’t matter whether it’s online shopping, in a furniture store or at an electronics retailer: behind every installment purchase there is a bank that finances the purchase price,” says Maier. From the point of view of the banks, those who are already paying off many current loans are less creditworthy if they want financing again. Read here how to increase your creditworthiness.
Oliver Maier therefore advises those affected to bundle all liabilities in an installment loan: “With this rescheduling loan, all open loans and installment payments are settled. Borrowers then only pay a single monthly installment. This makes it easier to keep track of their own finances and often saves a lot of interest . Because consumers sometimes have to pay more than 10 percent interest for installment purchases in online and retail trade. A retailer-independent installment loan is almost always significantly cheaper.”
