Online banks: ING charges no fees as Openbank faces scrutiny

Online banks: zero fees at ING and account freezes at Openbank

Can you have a current account without paying a single cent in fees? The experience of online bank customers in Spain says yes, but with small print, and most point to the same institution: ING. Four years without a single charge, cash withdrawals from any ATM in the 4B network at no extra cost, and phone support that doesn't force you through twenty recorded messages before talking to a person. That's the bar the rest have to beat. And opposite, traditional branch banking with its catalogue of fees, which is where the anger starts.

ING: four years, zero fees and a catch with the salary deposit

The most repeated cases speak of three and four years as a customer with zero, zilch in fees. The star argument is not the website, not even the phone, but being able to withdraw money from any ATM in the 4B network —including those in airports and shops— without a surcharge appearing. Support, when needed, is resolved in seconds if you dial the right free number, without the string of recorded messages beforehand.

There's more: interest-bearing deposits and offers that appear when you make a move to take your money to another institution. Nothing to beg a salesperson for. The trade-off is known and is in the salary account contract: if the salary stops coming in, you lose the benefits. That said, it's not automatic and there's no penalty like in those institutions that give away laptops and televisions in exchange for staying.

Openbank: from Patagon to account freezes

The other side of the coin is Openbank. A customer reports that his account was blocked, leaving him unable to make transfers, that no one could explain why, that they refused to put him through to a superior, and that it took him fifteen days to recover his money, with a formal complaint and a threat to go to the Banco de España in between. The summary of his experience leaves no room for doubt: with the current landscape, it's scary to think what happens when they don't want to give you your money.

Add to that the platform migration. The general feeling is that the new interface is unstable, not user-friendly, and worse than the previous one, to the point that some have migrated to ING. Not everything is bad: there are customers from the Patagon days, back in 2002, who never had a serious problem.

Uno-e, iBanesto and Activobank: where interest is king

With these three institutions the criteria change: the customer isn't looking for free, but for returns. And the picture looks like this:

• iBanesto: 6% until January, the usual destination for savings while the offer lasts.
• Uno-e: 3.5% on its interest-bearing account with just a 500-euro deposit per month.
• ING: around 3% on the Orange account for regular savings.

Uno-e adds a good website, good phone service and a detail that's far from minor: it doesn't require you to set up a salary deposit to get a card and a truly operational account. Activobank appears as the best in returns for those who have tried it. There are people who keep five accounts at once —Uno-e, ING, Activobank, Openbank and iBanesto— and only use two.

ATMs: 4B, Servired and the myth of the shared network

The most confusing detail is the networks. The two big ones are Servired and 4B, and it's one thing for two institutions to ally and quite another for the transaction to come out free. At Uno-e, for example, the card only avoids a fee at BBVA ATMs and costs 30 cents at the rest of the same network. At ING, by contrast, withdrawals are free at any 4B ATM, whichever bank it belongs to. The difference, repeated month after month, is not minor.

When the problem isn't the fee, it's the scare

There are also the hits that don't appear in advertising. An Andalusian savings bank granted an overdraft with no surcharge of up to half the salary amount, as a welcome gift; the detail disappeared. A premium card stolen abroad left the holder with no phone number to call: the institution didn't accept calls from outside Spain. And a deposit made on a Friday turned into a three-day overdraft, fixed through written complaints until the customer stopped being a sucker.

The perfect bank doesn't exist: the one that charges no fees has no office to cry in, and the one that has an office charges you to cry. If someone finds the combination, let them tell us.