As it does every year, the consumer protection association CLCV has published a survey of bank charges. Published at the beginning of January 2021, it reveals a significant disparity between banking establishments, with rates varying by as much as double.
Very unequal bank charges
"Once you've listed your needs, it's in the consumer's best interest to compare the rates charged by different banks, as the differences can be quite substantial", stresses the CLCV association. The banque 2021 survey, based on rates in force on February 1, 2021 in 127 banks in mainland France and overseas, excluding online banks, and broken down into 3 customer profiles, highlights price differences that can range from simple to more than double for the same customer profile.
CLCV has established 3 customer profiles:
- small consumers, who have a limited number of services,
- average consumers,
- heavy consumers, using a large basket of services.
For a small consumer, the annual bill is 41 euros at the cheapest bank, Crédit Agricole Centre Loire, and 108 euros at Milleis, which has the highest rates surveyed by CLCV. In other words, the bill more than doubles.
Furthermore, within the same bank, the annual bill varies from department to department. For example, while the average annual basket is 41 euros for a small consumer at Crédit Agricole Centre Loire, it is 52.90 euros at Crédit Agricole Centre Est for the same customer profile.
Increases to be expected in 2021
Small customers will be hardest hit by the rise in bank charges, with an average increase of 1.06%. For medium and large consumers, on the other hand, the trend will be towards a slight decrease of -0.2%, although there will be wide disparities from one bank to another.
As for bank cards, the trend is upward everywhere, with increases of 1.2% for immediate debit cards, 0.4% for deferred debit cards and 0.6% for top-of-the-range bank cards such as Gold or Visa Premier.
Several types of transaction are also following this upward trend: occasional external branch transfers, account maintenance fees, but also less common transactions such as inheritance fees, joint account unbundling or PEL transfers.
On the other hand, CLCV points out that almost all the banks surveyed comply with the regulatory ceiling of 8 euros for intervention fees in the event of a payment incident, as well as the ceiling of 20 euros for direct debit rejections.