After a stable year in 2023, banks will catch up in 2024: account maintenance, bank card and other fees have started to rise again, between 2.5% and 3% on average, says the CLCV association in conclusion of its annual study published this Tuesday. These are “small consumers”, with a set of basic services (account maintenance fees, immediate debit card, etc.) and so-called average consumers (two holders each with a card with loss and theft insurance). , a bank check every 10 years…) which suffer the highest inflation, of 2.97% and 3% respectively. Their annual bank charges, applied for the most part since January 1, increase this year to 66.23 euros for the first profile and 147.80 euros for the second.
Estimated inflation in France was 3.7% year-on-year in December, according to INSEE. “Large consumers” within the meaning of CLCV, that is to say two holders with a Gold or Premier card, insurance against loss and theft or even numerous withdrawals, will see their bill increase by 2.52%, to 207.65 euros in 2024. The authors of the study affirm that these increases “are essentially due to the evolution of account maintenance fees (3%), the cost of bank cards (…) and the ‘increase in package prices’, these bundles of services deemed to be of little benefit to the customer.
The CLCV also points to “modifications made by certain establishments to the rules applicable to withdrawals from ATMs”, such as increasing the cost of withdrawals made in another network and lowering the number of free withdrawals authorized in a competing bank. . However, at the same time, banks are dismantling their automatic teller machines (ATMs): their number fell by 12% between 2018 and 2022, according to the French Banking Federation (FBF).
Banks also tend to charge more for operations carried out in branches, “which penalizes people who are not able to use online operations or less common operations”, underlines the association.
The CLCV examined the price lists of around a hundred establishments, including BNP Paribas, Société Générale and the regional banks of Crédit Agricole or the BPCE networks. This year’s increases are higher than those observed in 2022 (more than 2.5% on “small” and “medium” consumer profiles) and in 2023 (almost stable for all).
The CLCV makes these comparative tables public. We can see that Crédit Coopératif and certain Crédit Agricole funds are rather competitive in all market segments, while LCL is competitive for small consumers and BNP Paribas for average consumers. SG, a merger of the retail banking networks of Société Générale and Crédit du Nord, is among the most expensive banks across all profiles, as are the Banques Populaires to a lesser extent.
The average amounts calculated by CLCV do not include any fees for banking incidents. The Panorabanques comparator, which includes these costs in its calculations, concluded last year that they represented on average a third of total banking fees. According to him, the annual average of total bank fees (all types of consumers combined, with incident fees) amounted to 220.60 euros in 2023, i.e. more than the “large consumer” profile of CLCV.
The CLCV is also interested in this and notes that the vast majority of banks charge the legal ceiling for the intervention commission (8 euros) or check rejection fees (50 euros for a check for more than 50 euros). “Other fees can be high,” continue the authors of the study, such as the information letter for unauthorized debit accounts, which can reach 20 euros at BNP Paribas or Crédit Agricole Nord Midi Pyrénées.
The Financial Sector Advisory Committee (CCSF) also addressed the issue last October, noting that more and more banks were charging “fixed minimum interest charges” from the first cent in the red. The DGCCRF severely criticized the profession in September.
