Construction financing: Directly at the bank or through intermediaries

We borrowed money from our local bank, the local Volksbank. Without intermediaries. 1.25% at the end of 2016. Everything went very smoothly and personally. For the disbursements, a photo from the iPhone of the interim invoices was Whatsapped or emailed to the branch manager. When we were finished, he only wanted one message, that the project was completed, which was enough. Payments were always made to our current account, and we then paid the construction contractor. Since we had a discount, speed also mattered a bit, but it was never a problem. All payments worked within eight days. So, I thought the bank really cleared the way, according to their advertising.

Yes, I am also quite satisfied with my Volksbank so far. It wasn't even my home bank. And it is not local either.

Then switch over there, become a comrade, acquire as many shares as they give you, our shares regularly yield at least 6% p.a. That's quite decent. Unfortunately, we were only allowed 1000 each. So woman 1000, man 1000.

At our place, Volksbank made an outrageous offer without considering our set factors. The Sparkasse, on the other hand, was completely fine in terms of interest and similar to what described.

We were at the (so von mir gedachten) pro-forma appointment at Volksbank (my husband's main bank) yesterday. We had an extremely good consultation and they offered the lowest interest rate on their own (the next offer would be PSD Rhein-Ruhr via Interhyp). We did not expect that and were very positively surprised! :-)