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Banknotes on a radiator: That's where they go, the euros
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
The message reached me on Tuesday.
In an internal survey of our Finanztip users on Instagram and YouTube, a third of the more than 9,000 participants on Instagram and a fifth of the almost 7,000 YouTube users stated that they were currently using up their savings.
I heard similar things on the same day when I spoke to the board members of large insurers.
In view of the skyrocketing price of energy, more and more people will have to resort to loans again in the future for necessary purchases.
And it is still much more difficult for customers to find a suitable loan than a suitable savings plan.
Because none of the four credit portals Smava, Check24, Verivox or Finanzcheck, which have at least shed some light on this market, always provide the cheapest loan.
They are currently even resorting to advertising nonsensical residual debt insurance again.
Interest rates have risen significantly in recent months, especially for small loans, as a survey by my Finanztip colleagues shows, most strongly in this case at Barclays.
The interest rate that two-thirds or more of customers still get for a 2,000-euro loan (i.e. more of an emergency loan) was 1.75 percentage points higher than a year and a half ago.
The Bundesbank statistics show with a certain delay that interest rates have also risen significantly across the entire market.
If loans over 15,000 euros and with a term of five years cost 0.5 percentage points more, this means a total of around 200 euros more in interest for the customer.
Beware of the dispatcher!
If you have acute financial bottlenecks due to inflation and high energy costs, your first step might be to use the overdraft facility.
But the Dispo is particularly expensive.
After all, banks often charge ten to twelve percent interest for it.
If you pay off 2,000 euros in the overdraft facility over two years, it costs 223 euros at ten percent interest, while the installment loan with five percent interest is only around 103 euros.
It is even more expensive than using the overdraft facility to have debts accumulate on the credit card.
A number of credit card providers make it possible to not pay back the entire bill in the first month.
However, the interest rates are steep, 15 percent are not uncommon.
If you reduce 2000 euros to zero over two years, it costs 306 euros in interest.
Comparison is mandatory
An installment loan or framework loan is better, for example, to pay off the expensive prices in the three-month replacement supply from your gas provider if necessary.
The installment loan is also a classic means to an end if the car that you urgently need for the job broke down just now.
Car loans are usually a bit cheaper than classic installment loans because the bank has the car as security if you don't pay your installments.
In any case, you pay significantly less interest than with the overdraft facility, even if the size would allow you to buy the car.
Even if you take out a loan, comparing is mandatory.
Unfortunately, the comparison is not that easy, since the credit for the banks always depends on your personal creditworthiness.
And you can't just enter that with a code on comparison portals.
There isn't.
But you can approach the best offer.
And like this:
First, use a loan calculator to figure out how much money you really need and how much you can afford.
So 5000 euros to get through the energy winter or 15,000 euros for the car that is supposed to take you 40 kilometers to work every morning.
Second, calculate how much money you can basically spare each month to be able to use it for the installments.
Let's say it's 300 euros for the energy or 500 euros for the car.
Thirdly, check your creditworthiness with Schufa. Have Schufa send you a free copy of the data that Schufa has collected about you.
Check whether the Schufa has possibly stored outdated or even incorrect data about you that prevent the cheapest possible installment loan.
Have incorrect data corrected.
And then do the direct comparison.
Create a separate e-mail address for the comparison, because you will be flooded with e-mails.
And look for the data that you need for such loan inquiries on the portals, but also at every bank.
In addition to your name, address and date of birth, this also includes your employer's data: name and address, date you started with the employer, your monthly income, child benefit.
But also the monthly expenses such as rent or installments for the property, insurance, maintenance obligations and other loans, for example for a car or kitchen.
It is best to enter your data in the comparison screens of several portals and then get a summary and an idea of the possible interest rates.
You should try several portals because the current comparison of my Finanztip colleagues has shown that no portal regularly spits out the best offers.
Without portals, however, you can hardly compare - and if you can, then only with a lot of effort.
And a little disappointment is programmed anyway.
The offer in advertising is often deceptive
When you look at the banks’ loan advertising, you only ever see the cheapest offers, which hardly any customer gets.
If you take a closer look, you will find the so-called two-thirds interest rate.
Under these conditions, two thirds of the customers who asked would have received such a loan.
But you don't know in advance where you are.
In the following days you will probably be overwhelmed with a lot of offers by mail or even on the phone.
After all, the best offer is often there.
Feel free to ask your house bank again at this point.
Maybe she's making you an unbeatable offer.
It will often happen that you are offered a so-called residual debt insurance with the loan.
This is intended to cover your payments if you are unemployed, ill or dead and cannot pay them yourself.
But often, in an emergency, she doesn't pay because of various exclusion clauses.
I think she's a slob.
If you compare the costs, the loan with residual debt insurance is often twice as expensive.
That can quickly amount to more than a thousand euros.
You could choose the cheapest loan on a portal, with residual debt insurance it would be the most expensive.
The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) has published several studies in recent years that showed that up to 70 percent of the costs for residual debt insurance consisted of commissions.
Residual debt insurance is also offered on the websites of the portals.
At Check24, results with residual debt insurance even appeared in the results if the customers had previously opted out.
As a rule, they were at least specially marked, for example as alternative suggestions.
My urgent advice: do not accept!
With quite a lot of effort you have found the currently best loan and saved a lot of money.
Complete that now.
Do not be afraid of the future.
If you get a bonus or inherit money in the coming months, you can repay such installment loans in full with a small compensation.
And should a better offer come up because you have been promoted and now have a better credit rating at the same costs, you can also take advantage of this at any time to take out a cheaper loan and use it to repay the old one (again for a small fee).
In addition, you can now often agree on a special repayment for installment loans and repay them more quickly in the event of salary increases.
I wish you much success.
And if it worked, treat yourself to a small reward.