No more comparing current account costs on the legally certified website of Check 24: After a good five months, the company the site was shut down on Monday due to an unclear legal situation, as Check 24 announced at the request of the German Press Agency. Consumer advocates had complained about insufficient market coverage of the comparison website.

There was also headwind from a banking association. The model chosen in Germany for the implementation of an EU directive, which was supposed to provide more insight into the jungle of fees, was controversial from the start. The head of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv), Klaus Müller, spoke of a success for consumers. “The offer from Check 24 was not suitable for finding an overview of suitable account offers on the market for consumers.”

Certified and inadequate Although the website is certified by TÜV Saarland, it is still deficient and inadequate. “It simply did not meet the requirements of European law,” argued Müller. He called for a quick reassignment to an independent sponsor. “Independent agencies like the Bafin or the Stiftung Warentest would be better suited to make a good, useful offer to consumers here”.

Check 24 – Chef Christoph Röttele criticized the behavior of the consumer advocates: “We have discussions with you Politicians and consumer protection discussed the further development of the comparison for consumers. To be sued now that we implement legal criteria is incredible. ” As a company, Check 24 needs a legally secure framework for its investments in Germany. “We currently see it as endangered.”

Seven-digit amount invested The comparison website was at the beginning of August 2020 started. Bank customers found information about the amount of overdraft interest, account fees and fees for credit cards. Check 24, the conditions of all major private banks and more than 80 Percentage of the savings banks as well as Volks- and Raiffeisenbanken compared to total assets. In addition, there were almost all direct banks.

Check 24 I invested a seven-digit amount “in a settlement with which we do not earn money” said the boss. In the absence of industrial interfaces, the data had to be recorded manually. The company had also hoped that customers who use the site would also be interested in other products on the comparison portal. Check 24 receives commission from providers when consumers conclude contracts with them via the portal.

No complaints from TÜV Saarland According to the company, TÜV Saarland checked the comparison on a quarterly basis. During the analysis in November there were no complaints. From the point of view of consumer advocates, the website did not offer any significant market coverage. Of the more than 1700 banks in Germany (as of: end of 2019) according to a current vzbv evaluation 567 and thus less than a third recorded. In more than 90 percent of the cases, only one account model per credit institution was listed and not the full range of the institutions.

According to the investigation, the site was also too close to other commercial offers from Check 24 ajar. In the opinion of consumer advocates, the comparison website does not meet the requirements of the EU Payment Accounts Directive, which requires substantial market coverage. The federal association and the consumer association NRW had taken to court.

Conflicts of interest at check 24? “From the beginning we warned against a private, interest-driven solution. The victims are now the consumers. That is shameful,” said Müller. After the Internet portal was shut down, the private banks demanded that legal uncertainties be clarified and eliminated as quickly as possible.

“A comparison website should enable customers to compare the various offers from financial institutions quickly and easily,” said the general manager of the banking association, Andreas Krautscheid. It goes without saying that comparison websites should be above any doubt of self-interest.

There had also been criticism from cooperative banks in the past. The Association of Sparda Banks and the Bavarian Cooperative Association (GVB) saw possible conflicts of interest because Check 24 has entered the banking business and offers its own checking accounts . Check 24 had rejected this with the argument that the account comparison was regulated by the state and that the in-house bank offer was compared according to the same objective criteria

(axk)