Withdrawing money into the negative on a current account remains an expensive way to get cash in Germany. According to a recent analysis by the comparison website 'Verivox', banks charge an average interest rate of 11.31% within the agreed overdraft limit. Those who exceed this limit pay an additional interest rate of an average of 4.26 percentage points, which in some cases raises the total interest to over 19.75%. The analysis is based on data from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), covering 6,800 current account models from around 1,100 banks and savings banks. It was found that overdrafts are possible in 5,207 of these models with clear interest rates. According to the analysis, some banks charge interest rates of up to 15.31% within the overdraft limit. Cooperative banks such as 'Volksbank' and 'Raiffeisenbank' are particularly prominent here, with 12 of the top 20 banks for overdraft interest being cooperative institutions, along with seven savings banks and one private bank. This same distribution also applies to the interest rates charged when exceeding the allowed limit. Oliver Meyer, a finance expert at 'Verivox', commented: 'While savings interest rates have finally fallen due to the European Central Bank's monetary policy, customers are still paying very high interest rates for overdrafts.' Meyer advised customers not to focus only on the overdraft interest rate when choosing a current account, but also on account management fees, card usage, and cash withdrawal fees.
