A custody fee – popularly known as negative interest – for deposits in the call money account has been widespread for some time now. However, many banks emphasize that there is an exemption limit up to which no negative interest is charged.
Nevertheless, some credit institutions indirectly pass on the negative interest rates of the European Central Bank – via an unusual fee for the call money account.
This can cost the consumer up to 60 euros per year. If you get over the allowance estimated by some banks, you even pay negative interest on top of the fee.
A week ago, savers watched the Council meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) with excitement. In Frankfurt, they discussed whether they should raise their interest rates in the near future – but then decided against it. The ECB is leaving the deposit rate for banks at -0.5 percent for the time being.
Currently enough 429 banks the negative interest rate in the form of a custody fee on call money accounts to their customers. Most of the time, the interest rate that banks charge for money market accounts is -0.5 percent. However, it is not uncommon to have allowances where customers are not charged a custody fee up to a certain amount.
Some banks have now got creative to ask customers to pay anyway. The comparison portal Verivox has the conditions of the money market accounts evaluated by 1,300 German banks and found that although many have an allowance, they charge unusual fees for the call money account that apply to everyone.
A call money account can cost up to 60 euros per year
The banks charge between one euro and five euros per month if you have an overnight money account. The most expensive bank is the Spar- und Kreditbank from Witten with five euros per month, which corresponds to at least 60 euros per year. GLS also charges five euros per month. However, these are incurred for each customer of the bank and then only once, regardless of whether you have a current account, a call money account or both.
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The savings banks and Volksbanks usually charge significantly less. Here you can get away with sometimes one euro per month quite cheap. You can read about the exact conditions that apply to the various call money accounts on the respective bank websites.
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However, if you take a closer look at the conditions at some banks, you will notice that many of them charge a custody fee from an exemption amount onwards, despite a fee. For example, at the Sparkasse Amberg-Sulzbach, 0.5 percent interest has to be paid from as little as 10,000 euros on the call money account.
The Raiffeisenbank am Dreisessel is a little more accommodating. From an amount of 5000 euros there is no fee – but you have to pay negative interest for everything that is above the exemption amount. With some banks, such as the Comdirect, there is no fee if you open a securities account with the bank.
Negative interest rates on money market accounts could soon disappear again
But what is the difference between a checking account and a money market account? Call money accounts are accounts that are mostly used to store money so that it is not just sitting in the checking account. However, money can always be transferred from the money market account to the current account and withdrawn from there.
For a long time, the daily account was considered a good middle ground if you wanted to store larger sums and still needed flexible and quick access to your money. For a long time, the banks gave good interest rates for money market accounts. In 2010, just before the ECB cut interest rates, you could still get 2 percent interest on your money market account.
Should the interest rate policy of the ECB change in the coming months, the negative interest rates would probably disappear again. It remains to be seen whether the 22 banks mentioned will then abolish account fees again. However, with increasing overnight money accounts, they should become significantly more attractive again. It is quite possible that some people will learn to appreciate the advantages of moderate returns and quick availability again and that overnight money accounts will experience a renaissance.
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