Instant access savings: a safe investment

An instant access savings account is available at any time and offers attractive interest

The best terms when investing in an instant access savings account

An instant access savings account is an account in which you can invest smaller or larger sums entirely flexibly. In an instant access savings account your money is available at any time and is not tied to a term. At DKB there are also no additional conditions attached to your account. You always get the full interest rate, however much you invest. You earn interest from the first euro to the last. Compared with other forms of investment, an instant access savings account has the advantage that the rate is usually considerably higher than on a traditional passbook account, for example. What is more, instant access savings are completely safe - this form of investment carries no risk whatsoever. That makes an instant access savings account a sensible way to invest money over the short term as well as the long term.

The instant access savings account compared with other forms of investment

Alongside the level of interest, daily availability is the most important argument in favour of an instant access savings account. Compared with a traditional passbook account, an instant access savings account has the advantage that it can be closed at any time. Passbook accounts generally have a statutory notice period of three months. Instant access savings accounts also usually pay considerably better interest than a standard passbook account. So the instant access savings account has all the advantages of a passbook account, but offers a higher return and can be closed at any time. Daily availability is also what distinguishes instant access savings from a fixed-term deposit. With a fixed-term deposit account the money is tied up for a certain period. During that term you can neither withdraw money from a fixed-term deposit account nor pay any in. An instant access savings account, by contrast, is completely flexible. You can pay money in at any time or have it paid out to your reference account. Instant access rates are currently at roughly the same level as fixed-term rates. So with an instant access savings account you achieve just as high a return as with a fixed-term deposit, while still being able to get at your money at any time.

An instant access savings account offers many advantages

Unlike an ordinary current account, an instant access savings account is a credit-only account. You can therefore only transfer to your nominated reference account the money that is actually available in the instant access savings account. This is also an important security feature of the account. Money in your instant access savings account can only be transferred to your reference account. A transfer to a third party's account is therefore impossible. Opening an instant access savings account is straightforward and can be done conveniently from home: direct banks such as DKB offer the option on their website of applying for an account online from your computer at home. Your identity is then verified using the PostIdent procedure at a post office. To do this, simply take the printed PostIdent coupon and your identity card to a post office near you. The post office staff take care of the rest. DKB covers all the costs of the PostIdent procedure for you. Direct banks also offer you the advantage of not being tied to opening hours. You can take care of your banking conveniently from home at any time. In addition, the terms of an instant access savings account at direct banks are largely better than at branch banks, because they pass on the savings from having fewer branches and staff to you.