Some of the domestic banks have drastically increased their fees Chamber of Labor bank monitor (AK) out. According to this, the institutes increased an average of nine charges from 53 services per bank by around 5 percent. On average, every sixth price position was raised.
Examples of price increases in payment transactions were the payment of a payment slip at the counter. As a particularly crass example, the AK cites the account management fee for the credit account. At Erste Bank, this rose by 764 percent within a year – from 4.05 to 35 euros.
53 services
The AK compared the prices of 53 services for new customers – payment transactions, savings, credit, securities – at nine banks in Vienna in a year-to-year comparison December 2020/January 2021 to January 2022. It was found: Seven of the nine banks examined have between two (easybank) and 25 (UniCredit Bank Austria) expenses increased. “Five of them have completely eliminated individual fees – also because courts judged the offsetting of certain fees to be inadmissible. An example: the inheritance fee,” says AK consumer protection expert Gabriele Zgubic.
Generali Bank and Santander Consumer Bank kept their charges the same. The Volksbank Wien (as in previous years) and for the first time the WSK Bank did not transmit any price notices – that is not a sign of transparency, according to Zgubic.
Fair bank charges demanded
In view of the general rise in prices, the AK demands fair bank charges and interest. There should be a price cap for cash deposits at the counter and the interest rate for overdrafts should be reduced to six percent.
“Several fees, especially for self-service services, must become cheaper. Consumers already have to carry out more and more banking transactions themselves anyway. And as a rule, traditional and financially weak bank customers are disadvantaged at the counter because most banks charge too much at the counter Turn the screw on the fee,” says a broadcast from the AK.
The AK offers with the bank calculator a price comparison for current accounts.