It is already difficult to find a bank that would not have a savings account in its offer. It was recently introduced by Bank BPH, and a little earlier by Bank DnB NORD. As the amount of savings accounts increases, so does the amount accumulated on them. When we made similar estimates a little over a year ago, in May 2008, Poles kept about PLN 50 billion on these accounts. Now it is
by PLN 15 billion more. This means that every fourth zloty in savings of Poles in banks is on a savings account. According to NBP data, at the end of June private individuals had PLN 187.3 billion on term deposits. If we add to this the 65 billion zlotys, it gives us 252.3 billion zlotys in savings in banks. Savings accounts therefore account for a quarter of this amount.
This value is growing not only due to the growing offer of banks. To this must be added the attractive interest rate offered by the banks. The best savings accounts bring up to 6% per annum, and this tempts customers to deposit money on them.
In Citibank, new funds deposited into the account have an interest rate of 6.06%. The same rate is applied to a savings account with Eurobank, but in addition, we have a daily capitalization, i.e. the possibility of avoiding the Belka tax, so the effective interest rate is higher. Offering such anti-tax products is, after all, the latest trend in banks’ deposit offerings. Daily capitalisation means that the interest added is relatively small. If they do not exceed PLN 2.49, then due to rounding up the tax on profits is zero. Such a solution was introduced not only by Eurobank, but also by Kredyt Bank, BPH and, more recently, Polbank, which offers the highest interest rates on the market, i.e. as much as 6.5%.
What attracts customers to savings accounts is not only the interest rate, but also quite free access to the accumulated funds. As a general rule, you can withdraw money once a month at no extra cost and, most importantly, without losing interest. Subsequent withdrawals may already be paid out in the month, but you will also find banks that do not charge these fees at all. Moreover, customers can pay even very small amounts of money at any time, unlike in the case of deposits where you need a minimum amount of money, e.g. PLN 500. In addition, savings accounts are well suited to the preferences of depositors, as they are still the most likely to choose short-term deposits.
Savings accounts are also an attractive product for banks. Limitation of liquidity in the form of fees for withdrawing funds more than once a month causes the accounts to be constantly credited with a certain amount of money. Moreover, the bank may have additional revenues from these over-planned withdrawals, unlike in the case of deposits withdrawn. Moreover, accounts are opened for an indefinite period of time, so the migration of customers may be lower than in the case of term deposits. It can be expected that savings accounts will continue to be an important and attractive product in the banking offer, and the amount of money accumulated on them will continue to grow.
