Financial tip

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Financial tip
Website logo
Advice on consumer and financial issues
languages German
operator Finanztip Foundation
Registration only for comment function
On-line 2013
https://www.finanztip.de/

Finanztip is a consumer guide with articles on consumer and financial topics. Since 2014 it has been headed by Hermann-Josef Tenhagen , the former editor-in-chief of Finanztest . The website is operated by Finanztip Consumer Information GmbH . This is a 100% subsidiary of the Finanztip Foundation, the purpose of which is to promote financial and consumer education.

background

The website offers guides and advice on money and consumer topics such as insurance, pensions, accounts, investments or energy. The articles are available for free with the aim of helping readers make important financial decisions and showing them how to get the best deals. In addition to the website, there is also a YouTube channel with over 100,000 subscribers and various podcasts.

Other offers include a weekly newsletter, which it claims has over 720,000 subscribers, a forum where readers can exchange information on the website's topics, and a blog with articles on current topics and media appearances by the Finanztip experts.

development

Finanztip was founded in 2013 as a purely online offer by Interhyp founders Robert Haselsteiner and Marcus Wolsdorf in Munich. First, an editorial team consisting of financial journalists and SEO experts was set up there.

In June 2014 it was announced that Hermann-Josef Tenhagen would join Finanztip in October 2014 as editor-in-chief. The financial journalist and former taz editor was previously editor-in-chief of Finanztest for 15 years . His move from Stiftung Warentest to Finanztip caused a sensation in specialist circles and, according to his own statements, was justified by his interest in setting up a new project. Other prominent additions were the former online boss of the Taz, Matthias Urbach and the dpa editor Nina C. Zimmermann. The former editor-in-chief of Markt und Mittelstand , Udo Reuss, has been strengthening the editorial team since August 2015 .

The company had been registered as a non-profit GmbH since mid-2014 . In such a company form, all profits must be invested in the charitable cause. The editorial team moved to Berlin in October 2014 and is now based in Kreuzberg.

Since May 2020, Finanztip has been part of the Finanztip Foundation recognized by the Bavarian foundation supervisory authority on May 7, 2020. For this purpose, the two owners Robert Haselsteiner and Marcus Wolsdorf have transferred 100 percent of the shares in Finanztip Consumer Information gGmbH to the Finanztip Foundation. According to the two founders, this step was taken to ensure that Finanztip would remain an independent and neutral institution after their deaths. The purpose of the newly established foundation is to promote financial and consumer education. Since then, Finanztip has operated as a GmbH under the umbrella of the Finanztip Foundation. Distributions from Finanztip Consumer Information GmbH go to the Finanztip Foundation to finance charitable projects. One of the first projects is the Finanztip Schule educational initiative.

The experts from Finanztip are often guests in advice programs, for example at the Morgenmagazin , M € x and Zibb . In addition, guest articles by Finanztip appear in various online and print media, for example on Spiegel Online , for which Tenhagen writes a regular column, and on Süddeutsche Online.

In late summer 2014, Finanztip warned consumers about the consequences of the new life insurance reform law . The provisions allow insurers in financial distress to retain a large part of the reserves that would normally have to be distributed to policyholders. Another important topic for the portal in 2014 were loan fees , which were declared inadmissible by the Federal Court of Justice . According to Finanztip, the sample letter for recovery from the banks was downloaded 3 million times from the website. Since July 2015, the media have been reporting more and more on Finanztip's investigations into motor vehicle insurance. In the first half of 2016, Finanztip increasingly pointed out the possibility of revoking faulty building finance contracts, as around 80 percent of building finance contracts concluded after November 1, 2001 contained incorrect instructions on how to revoke the contract. With this so-called "withdrawal joker", consumers could demand a reversal of their contract and thus reduce their remaining debt by 10 to 20 percent and negotiate more favorable interest rates. For contracts concluded between September 1, 2002 and June 10, 2010, this option ended on June 21, 2016. According to its own statement, Finanztip recorded more than 500,000 page views on this topic.

At the end of 2015, Finanztip was voted second place by the jury of the business journalist magazine in the 2015 business editorial team , behind Manager Magazin and ahead of the business editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung .

The portal has been awarding a seal for recommendations since 2016.

Since 2017, Finanztip has also been offering its own calculators for various products, such as overnight money, current accounts or mobile phone tariffs. According to the company's own statements, these are designed to be as consumer-friendly and self-explanatory as possible and exclude products with expensive tricks.

On April 27, 2017, Econ Verlag published the "Finanztip book" How you can save a lot of money with little effort by Finanztip editor-in-chief Hermann-Josef Tenhagen .

In October 2018 Finanztip announced that it would be carrying out a nationwide school project together with the IZOP Institute. According to the company, there are more than 170 school classes and courses in the pilot phase. This has been carried out under the umbrella of the Finanztip Foundation since May 2020.

financing

Finanztip is financed in the initial phase by an interest-free loan from the founders. In the long term, the publication should be self-supporting. This is to be achieved through affiliate links that are placed in the articles on products and services recommended by the Finanztip editorial team and through which the company then receives a commission.

According to the portal, the editors will first test the offers. In a separate second process, the links to these offers are set by another department, if available.

In order to avert possible over-indebtedness, the shareholders, in accordance with the subordination agreement of December 15, 2015, withdrew their loan claims totaling € 4,520,000 from the claims of all other creditors in such a way that their claims only at the expense of balance sheet profits, from a liquidation surplus or from which assets exceeding the debtor's other liabilities need to be serviced.

criticism

Criticism of Finanztip comes primarily from brokers in the finance and insurance industry. The main point of criticism is the financing via affiliate links. This is therefore not presented transparently enough for the user. It is also criticized that Finanztip recommends the large comparison portals Check24 and Verivox, among others.

The links that Finanztip inserts into its pages to the companies it has tested are sometimes only set for the offers from which Finanztip subsequently receives a commission, although it would be possible to link all providers. This "preference for payers", together with the alleged separation between editorial work and revenue orientation, which is not really verifiable for outsiders, is a main point of criticism of the supposed independence of the company.

In the meantime, the Dresden Higher Regional Court has ruled that “Finanztip was convicted of surreptitious advertising and misleading consumers”. The claimed freedom from advertising by Finanztip was disproved in April 2018. Accordingly, Finanztip violates § 5 and § 5a of the UWG (law against unfair competition). The judgment is not yet final, the OLG Dresden has not allowed an appeal against the judgment. Finanztip wants to file a complaint against it.

The operating company "Finanztip Consumer Information Charitable GmbH" only publishes the statutory annual financial statements in the Federal Gazette . Thus, for example, the annual profits / losses or the salaries of the managing directors are not known.

Due to the advertisement of the Riester solutions from the provider Fairr of the Sutor Bank , criticism of Finanztip was loud after the emergency sales of the ETFs in order to ensure the financing of the guarantees issued. The provider from Tenhagen was often highlighted due to the high share quota. There was also financing via affiliate links between Fairr and Finanztip, which, as is usual with Finanztip, was made clear with an asterisk. Finanztip now recommends no more new deals with the provider.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Finanztip Foundation. Accessed on May 19, 2020.
  2. ↑ Ways out of the labyrinth . Enormous magazine. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
  3. ↑ Finanztip-Youtube-Kanal Retrieved on 2019-12-13.
  4. ↑ Finanztip Podcasts. Accessed May 19, 2020.
  5. ↑ Financial tip . Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  6. ↑ Who we are . Financial tip. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  7. ↑ Consumers' good friend . Kressreport (PDF file). Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  8. ↑ Finanztest boss Tenhagen leaves Stiftung Warentest . Manager magazine. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  9. ↑ Matthias Urbach and Nina C. Zimmermann strengthen us . Financial tip. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  10. ↑ Udo Reuss starts as a tax editor at Finanztip . Financial tip. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
  11. ^ Remmidemmi in Berlin . Fire one. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
  12. ↑ Finanztip starts with Hermann-Josef Tenhagen in Berlin . Financial tip. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
  13. ↑ Finanztip becomes part of the Finanztip Foundation . Financial tip. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  14. ↑ Liability, household effects, life: the right way to the best insurance . Mirror online. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  15. ↑ If you want to save, buy the expensive washing machine . Süddeutsche Online. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  16. ^ Remmidemmi in Berlin . Fire one. Retrieved May 13, 2015.
  17. ↑ How bank customers get back illegitimate loan fees . Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ). Retrieved June 18, 2015.
  18. ↑ Every 2nd person pays too much for car insurance Bild. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
  19. ↑ financial tip press release "period expires: more and more pull revocation Joker" on June 6, 2016 . Financial tip. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  20. ↑ Susanne Lang and Markus Wiegand: Die Wirtschaftsjournalisten des Jahres , Wirtschaftsjournalist , 2015 (6): p. 16.
  21. ↑ Finanztip introduces seal . Financial tip. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  22. ↑ How we finance ourselves . Financial tip. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  23. ↑ Finanztip book. . Ullstein book publishers. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
  24. ↑ Finanztip school project. Financial tip. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  25. ↑ Friends of the consumer . Business journalist. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  26. ↑ Federal Gazette. Retrieved October 3, 2018 .
  27. ^ Insurance messenger . Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  28. ↑ Versicherungsbote.de: Finanztip sentenced for surreptitious advertising and misleading consumers - Netzwelten - Versicherungsbote.de . 15th July 2019.
  29. ^ Financial tip review: Doubts about alleged freedom of advertising .
  30. ↑ Dresden Higher Regional Court - Finanztip is no longer allowed to call itself “advertising-free” .
  31. ↑ Federal Gazette .
  32. ↑ How to avoid the cost trap with the Riester pension .
  33. ↑ Fairriester wins at Finanztip - des Gschmäckle stays .
  34. ↑ Tenhagen's fairy tale hour: The consumer advocate and the Riester pension .
  35. ↑ Fairr-Riester sells ETFs .