UmweltBank • EUR
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Ingrid Schneider · Updated: 3 September 2026
UmweltGiro is the online current account from UmweltBank, an institution specialising in ecological and social projects. Unlike traditional branch banks, sustainability is front and centre here: the account is managed entirely digitally, and part of the new-customer bonus goes directly to environmental projects. For customers who value an ecologically oriented bank and are comfortable with pure online and phone banking, UmweltGiro is one of the few explicitly sustainability-focused current accounts in Germany.
UmweltGiro is free in the first year. After that, a monthly account fee of EUR 4.90 applies. Anyone planning to use the account long-term as their main account should budget for this cost from year two onward — it is not an unconditionally permanent free account.
For overdrafts, UmweltBank charges around 9.05% p.a. on both the arranged and the unarranged overdraft — a moderate rate by market standards.
New customers receive a total bonus of EUR 150: EUR 100 is credited directly to the customer's own account, and a further EUR 50 is donated by the bank to NABU environmental projects. The full detailed conditions for payout are not fully spelled out on the offer page, so anyone interested should check the final requirements directly when applying. Important for anyone expecting the full amount as their own credit: only two-thirds of the bonus (EUR 100) actually lands in the customer's own account — the rest is a donation made in the customer's name, which should be factored into how the bonus is valued.
Two cards are available. The Mastercard (the "wood card") is free in the first year, after which a EUR 49 annual fee applies — with EUR 20 cashback at EUR 2,500 in annual spending, and EUR 30 cashback from EUR 7,500 in annual spending. The Girocard is free until 31 December 2026, after which it costs EUR 9 per year.
With the Mastercard, cash withdrawals at ATMs in Germany, the EU and the EEA are unlimited and free. With the Girocard, many retailers such as dm, Rewe or Edeka offer free cashback with a purchase, while pure ATM withdrawals are fee-based. Outside the EU/EEA area, the Mastercard also charges a 1.50% foreign-usage fee on transactions in other currencies.
The UmweltBanking app supports mobile payment via Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as ordering a virtual Girocard. Deposits are protected up to EUR 100,000 per customer via the Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken GmbH. The account can be managed online, by phone and via the app — there are no branches, and UmweltBank does not offer an account-switching service for this account, so switching banks has to be organised manually.
The account suits employees, students, retirees, freelancers and people without paid employment who are looking for a bank with an ecological business model and are comfortable without a branch network. Anyone who values a local point of contact or an automated account-switching service will find that more readily elsewhere.
UmweltGiro is an interesting option for customers for whom the bank's ecological orientation matters. The EUR 150 bonus is attractive, though a third of it goes to a donation rather than the customer's own credit. Anyone using the account beyond the first year should factor in the EUR 4.90 monthly fee that then applies.
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