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ATM customer: checking accounts can get expensive
Photo: Manfred Segerer / imago images
In view of the low interest rates, more and more banks are charging checking accounts.
Consumers who are therefore looking for a new bank can now use an offer from Stiftung Warentest.
The consumer advocates make their current account comparison available free of charge on the test.de site.
This means that all consumers will probably have access to an objective and free comparison website by the second quarter of 2022, it said.
Subsequently, the financial supervisory authority Bafin is to put a state website into operation.
According to its own information, the authority expects the site to be ready for use in the second quarter of 2022.
According to Stiftung Warentest, more than 300 current account models from more than 130 national and regional banks and savings banks are currently being compared.
More than 50 characteristics are recorded for each account model, for example the amount of overdraft interest, account fees or fees for credit cards.
According to the European Payment Accounts Directive, Germany must ensure that all consumers have access to at least one objective and free comparison website for checking accounts.
Check24 initially operated this.
In mid-January, the comparison portal closed the certified website due to an unclear legal situation.
In the opinion of consumer advocates, the comparison website does not meet the requirements of the Payment Accounts Directive, which requires substantial market coverage.
The Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) and the North Rhine-Westphalian consumer organization went to court.
mmq / dpa
