Overall, French bank rates have remained stable or increased this year, according to the statement of the Observatory of banking tariffs (OTB) made public on Wednesday. This observatory emanates from a body, the Advisory Committee of the Financial Sector (CCSF), on which sit equally representatives of financial institutions and customers, parliamentarians and union representatives. Of the 14 tariffs scrutinized by the OTB, eight are stable or almost stable in 2022, five are up and only one is down (subscription to remote banking services, which goes from 19 cents to 18 cents per year).
The most significant increase (+5.32%) relates to the cost of a transfer carried out in a branch. The latter is charged on average 4.55 euros. Two basic services are also on the rise: account maintenance fees (+4.33%) and those for providing an immediate debit payment card (+1.19%). As of January 5, 2022, it took an average of 20.23 euros per year for the account maintenance service – i.e. 2.5 times more than ten years ago – and 42.46 euros per year for a payment card Visa or Mastercard with immediate debit (+12% in ten years).
Multiple fees
Alongside the “à la carte” tariffs, the Observatory of banking tariffs looked at packages or bundled service offers (OGS). It is necessary to count on average an annual contribution of 92.71 euros in a network bank for a basic pack (bank card, maintenance of account, emission and reception of transfers, checkbook…) But this tariff is still far from the real cost of a year-round bank. The study conducted by the comparator Panorabanks at the beginning of 2022 showed that bank charges amounted to an average of 219.90 euros per year, a cost up by 1.5% compared to the previous year.
Multiple costs indeed inflate the invoice: intervention commissions in the event of incidents of rejection of checks or transfers (7.35 euros on average), replacement of a bank card before the expiry date (11.09 euros ), fixed fees from the fourth cash withdrawal from an ATM other than those of one’s own bank (1.01 euro per additional withdrawal), etc. “Bank customers can, at a moderate price, access a local service, often physical through branches, and also digital to carry out the simplest operations independently, at any time”, reacted the Banking Federation. Française (FBF), the French banking lobby.
In September, Bercy obtained from the banks that they do not increase their prices by more than 2% next year and that they pass from 3 to 1 euro per month “the fragile customer offer”, insufficient gestures according to consumer associations.