Getting salaries in a bank account may bring cheaper loans

Bankers charge lower interest rates for loans applied for by clients receiving their salaries in a current account, saying that by controlling their monthly incomes they can curb the non-repayment risk.

Clients bringing their salary account at the bank they want to take out a loan from can get as much as 2% cheaper funding from the standard offer.

"The bank's having access to clients' monthly incomes and being able to automatically extract the monthly instalment from their current account means lower risk, which accounts for the interest cuts. At the same time, banks can much more easily make a decision at the moment the respective clients want to renew their loans or access another loan," comments financial analyst Dragoş Cabat.

The largest interest cuts are for consumer loans and they appear in the offers of some second-tier banks, which are this way trying to gain market share at a time when most players are reluctant to lend money to individuals.