Credit Cards (Image by drawing). – DENIS CHARLET / AFP
Depending on each bank, Bank charges vary enormously. Based on this observation, the CLCV association calls consumers to compare more than ever the establishments to make play the competition.
For a basket of identical services, “the bill will be very different from one establishment to another,” CLCV notes, with prices for the same customer profile that can range “from simple to more than double ”at the national level. This observation is based on a study of the rates that will be in effect on February 1 2020 in 127 banks in mainland France and
overseas , for three consumer profiles – small, medium or large – depending on the number of services used.
“à la carte” offers »More interesting than the packages
The average cost represents 60, 43 euros per year for a small consumer, 155, 39 euros for an average consumer and 209 , 66 euros for a large consumption ator. “After having listed his needs, the consumer has every interest in comparing the prices of the different banks as the differences can be significant”, advises CLCV, which also encourages comparing the offers offered within the same establishment.
We can indeed often choose between paid banking services “À la carte”, individually, and those grouped together in a “package”, a bundled offer at a fixed price. However, the “package” is “only interesting in ten establishments” for small consumers and “is only financially advantageous” in about half of the banks for medium and large consumers, the study notes.
“In general, customers are not sufficiently informed of all possible options and are often only presented with packaged offers, ”deplores Jean-Yves Mano, president of CLCV, to AFP.
Scheduled increase in costs in 2021
The study also notes that some customers will pay more expensive their banking services in 2020 that in 2020 . Small consumers are expected to be the most affected with an “increase in average cost of 1, % ”. For the other customer profiles, the average cost recorded by CLCV should remain almost stable (-0.2%).
Price increases are mainly due to increases on immediate debit cards, account maintenance fees or even ATM withdrawals. According to CLCV, they also relate to less common “high-cost” operations, such as PEL transfer fees (up to 145 euros) or inheritance (which can represent up to several hundred euros) .
Sometimes “opaque” conditions
In its January edition, the magazine 66 Million of consumers also criticizes the commissions received by the banks on inheritance costs, denouncing “vertiginous increases in period 2012 – 2020 ”in certain establishments and “opaque” conditions. Deeming that the banks “take too much”, the magazine calls on the authorities to regulate these fees.
Questioned by AFP, the French Banking Federation affirms for its part that “the processing costs, taken during an inheritance, are clearly displayed and detailed in the price guides “. “These costs cover not only the treatment of the deceased’s assets but also the necessary interventions, depending on the degree of complexity of the succession, and do not correspond to a simple account closure”, continues the federation, stressing that the hardening of the regulations in recent years required banking establishments to “carry out important investigations”.