Apparently, it will take a little while for the European Central Bank's (ECB) interest rate hike to reach every village in Germany.

Direct banks such as ING Germany did not miss the opportunity to respond to the central bank's first signals of an era of higher interest rates by quickly ending their negative interest rates for customers and making a comeback in the call money account.

They were sure of the advertising effect.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

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In the meantime, however, things are also happening at the Volksbanken and savings banks throughout the country, as the consumer portal Biallo has worked out in a comparative study that the FAZ has exclusively received in advance.

The interest rates on savings from many smaller institutes are therefore not up to the best nationwide providers in the comparison tables on the Internet.

They also do not compensate for inflation, which is currently more than 10 percent.

Nevertheless, it is obviously worthwhile for customers of Volksbanken and savings banks to simply speak to their advisor about interest rates.

Small savings interest instead of custody fee

Until recently, the 770 Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks and the 360 ​​savings banks had "virtually nothing to gain" on this issue, writes Biallo.

On the savings account, time deposit or overnight money, there was - if at all - only a symbolic interest rate of 0.001 or 0.01 percent per year.

In addition, if a certain amount is exceeded, often 50,000 or 100,000 euros, a so-called custody fee has become due.

Many of the cooperative banks and savings banks abolished these negative interest rates "relatively quickly" after the ECB's first rate hike on July 21.

A comparison of the 50 largest institutes from both banking groups now shows: 76 percent of the savings banks now have their own fixed-term deposit offering with positive interest rates, 44 percent of the Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken.

You currently get an average of 1.14 percent interest on fixed deposits for one year at the savings banks.

The cooperative banks average 1 percent.

Both are more than just a few months ago.

The best provider among the savings banks in this category is now Sparkasse Holstein with 1.8 percent for fixed-term deposits for one year.

The leader among the Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks is the Bank für Kirche und Caritas in Paderborn: it pays 1.65 percent on a one-year fixed deposit.

The top interest rate for fixed-term deposits over four years, on the other hand, is 2.7 percent in both banking groups, offered by the Kreissparkasse Heilbronn and the Bank für Kirche und Diakonie.

In contrast to fixed-term deposits, the cooperative banks are at least a little more generous than the savings banks when it comes to overnight money: the average interest rate is 0.06 percent, compared to 0.007 percent at the savings banks.

The Cologne district savings bank offers the highest interest rate among all savings banks for overnight money at 0.25 percent, and the bank in the diocese of Essen leads the field with 0.5 percent among the cooperative banks.