Spanish banks hike account fees: what’s the real cost?

The Financial Users Association recently published a study that reveals a major surge in account maintenance fees at Spanish banks. Supposedly, non-online account holders pay up to 240 euros a year, which is an increase of 3.5% from last year. The average cost of those accounts is usually 150 euros, so this new amount is way ahead of the standard.

Deutsche Bank, which is a Berlin-based international bank and stands at the top of the list as they doubled their fees from 120 euros to 240 euros. In second place, we have the Spanish bank called Kutxabank, which also raised its prices but in a more modest way. The account fees for those without bonuses went up from 120 euros to 140 euros. On the other hand, Unicaja has become a hero for users since instead of increasing their fees, they reduced them. Last year, Unicaja fees were 120 euros, the same as Kutxabank and Deutsche Bank. However, currently it went down as far as to 36 euros per year. Last but not least on the originality, Bankinter remains the only fee free bank for conventional accounts.

Crazy enough, the rise in banking fees is a strategic move that banks came up with to convince customers to use online accounts. Online accounts are an advantage for banks as they have reduced operational costs, better collection of data on customer behavior, and overall increased efficiency. However, it can be challenging for the less tech-savvy, as, after all, it does require some knowledge of digital tools.

Can you imagine that transfer fees went from 1.26 euros to 2.13 euros? However, instant transfers only saw an increase of 4 cents. The crazy thing about it is that it’s all legal, as it is part of the EU regulations on promoting instant money transfers. On the good side, debit card maintenance fees are now 25.91 euros instead of 30 euros. Overall, when it comes to debit cards, usage fees have been decreasing, except for ATM withdrawals that keep slightly increasing. In conclusion, this recent study highlights the need for more consumer friendly regulations in the banking sector.