Why pay for your checking account? ING takes the cake with 43.80 euros per year | Money

Five years ago you could bank for 18 euros per year, now you pay at least 32 euros. A current account with ABN Amro has gone from 18.60 euros to 39 euros per year. An increase of 110 percent. Rabobank has increased the rates by 90 percent (from 18.60 euros to 35.40 euros) and ING takes the cake: in 2019 you paid 18.60 euros annually for an account with one card holder. Now it is 43.80 euros. An increase of 135 percent.

For accounts with two card holders, the costs have risen slightly less rapidly, but there are nevertheless significant increases of tens of percent that you as a consumer cannot ignore. And that upsets consumers: in a panel survey by the Consumers’ Association, 41 percent of respondents indicate that they believe a bank account should be free. More than three-quarters think the costs for a checking account are too high.

“According to banks, the cause was the low interest rates,” explains Gerard Spierenburg of the Consumers’ Association. “The costs of combating money laundering and terrorism were also mentioned. But now that interest rates have risen and banks can combat risks in an increasingly targeted manner, as far as we are concerned, the price increases are over.”

Berend Jan Beugel of the Dutch Payments Association: “Banks incur costs for a current account. Consider issuing payment cards and processing transactions. That does not happen automatically.” Transactions are also monitored and a lot of money goes to the infrastructure to keep cash in circulation. “Because ATMs are now managed jointly, this can be done more efficiently. But at the same time, the vending machines have become expensive and more expensive.”

And costs have indeed gone up due to inflation. “Yes, there is extra income due to the higher rates, but that is also lost at the back due to higher costs,” says Beugel. Moreover, banks can charge whatever they want, there is no maximum on the costs of a current account. “If in general the costs of everything we do increase, the costs of checking accounts will also increase.”

But what about the interest? Banks are now making money from our savings due to the higher interest rates from the ECB, among others? Beugel: “A few years ago, banks paid negative interest. Now they make money from it, but banks often put money away for the long term. As a result, you do not immediately see that effect, while banks do notice the increased costs immediately.”

Out previous research (2022) by the Dutch Payments Association It turned out that banks in the Netherlands were making losses on private current accounts for a long time, which were compensated with business accounts. This loss was mainly due to low interest rates. That has now changed. The Dutch Central Bank (DNB) stated in a report at the end of last year that most Dutch major banks ‘can probably offer payment services profitably this year’.

Although there is some criticism about the costs – on average 44 percent of respondents give the cost aspect of their bank an unsatisfactory rating – most people are satisfied with their bank: all banks score more than sufficient in the Consumers’ Association survey. Regiobank is the leader with a 9.4, followed by ASN Bank (8.9) and Knab (8.5). At the bottom are the three major banks with a 6.9 (ABN Amro and Rabobank) and a 6.8 (ING).

Also read: Your account number cannot be transferred: this is how it works if you want to switch banks

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