In a sector that is cutting jobs and closing agencies, you shouldn't expect freebies.
Bank charges will be on the rise again for the French in 2021. The annual study by the comparator Panorabanques, which “Le Parisien” unveils exclusively, reports that they will amount to an average of € 216.70.
That is an average increase of € 1.20 on the invoice compared to last year.
“This is the biggest increase since 2017,” emphasizes Laure Prenat, general manager of the online comparator.
The trend is confirmed, after a year 2019 when fees had fallen, following the freeze on bank rates decreed by the government after the yellow vests.
You should not expect big increases every year.
The French are facing financial difficulties and traditional banks must succeed in retaining their customers.
»Retain yes, but not at any cost.
After a year 2020 marked by the Covid crisis, the networks are adapting their strategy to improve their profitability.
This translates into the rates.
For example, to encourage customers to adopt classic deferred debit cards, banks lowered the price by 0.2% (on average 43 euros), while the more widespread immediate debit card increased (+0.7 %, 42.30 euros).
Why such a gap?
The interchange commission paid by the merchant to his bank is higher when the purchase is made with a deferred debit card, driving up the income of banking establishments.
Encourage the customer to do most of the operations themselves online
In the same logic of profitability, twenty-five banking establishments significantly increase account maintenance costs (+ 4.6% to 18.20 euros on average per year).
Fewer and fewer groups are resisting the temptation to charge customers for the simple fact that they have… a checking account.
85% of French people pay for it today.
“These are arguably the most frustrating and annoying fees since they are imposed.
The customer has no control over them, ”slips Laure Prenat.
Only seventeen banks, including Crédit Agricole Normandie Seine, still do not charge any.
Banks are trying to generate more income and try to erase the most expensive operations, to save money.
They encourage customers to abandon physical branches to reduce the costs associated with them.
The costs related to operations carried out in branch, such as occasional transfers, therefore increased further (+ 2.1%) at 34 banking establishments.
"Meeting with an advisor would then only be used to carry out high added value operations," says Laure Prenat.
The wish, clear, is that the client performs as many operations on the mobile application and the website as possible, which does not require the bank to pay rent, maintenance costs or a shovelful of advisers' salaries. .
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This digitization is also a question of survival in the face of fierce competition from online banks which are attracting more and more customers.
“Network banks are forced to adapt.
Online banks and neobanks have completely shaken up the market, analyzes Laure Prenat.
Competition is good, for consumers in any case!
Moreover, the subscription fees to the management of the account on the Internet disappear to become the exception.
99% of French people no longer have to pay in 2021.
