Those very expensive bank incident fees.
These are very high in France, compared to neighboring countries, denounces this Tuesday the consumer defense association UFC-Que Choisir, which calls on the government to reduce them.
These fees which apply in particular in the event of rejection of direct debit are at the origin of a “scandalous bank drain of 1.8 billion euros on the consumer budget”, according to the association which notes in a press release “ the inefficiency of competition" to curb them.
Read alsoFees for “payment incidents”: the lucrative business of French banks
Proof of this is that the ceiling of 20 euros in the event of rejection of direct debit is systematically applied by all banks, according to UFC-Que Choisir, including 8 euros under an “intervention commission”.
17 times higher in France than in Germany
The association calculated that the average duration of these interventions was less than 1 minute 30, and evaluated the margins of French banks on these incident costs at 86%.
Direct debit rejection costs are 17 times higher in France than in Germany, 8 times higher than in Italy and 3 times higher than in Belgium, specifies UFC-Que Choisir.
When the direct debit is made despite an account in the red beyond the authorized overdraft, only the intervention commission is deducted but "one bank in four (24%), all members of the Banques Populaires-Caisse d'Épargne group (BPCE ), can find nothing better than to increase the bill by sending their customers a + information + letter at 10.70 euros on average, ”explains the press release.
Faced with these practices, the UFC-Que Choisir urges the government "to bring the excesses of the banks into line with incident costs" on the occasion of the bill for the defense of the purchasing power that the government wants present after the legislative elections.
A request for intervention from the public authorities
“As soon as competition does not work, the public authorities are, in our opinion, legitimate to intervene to regulate the market” and would be “well advised to revise downwards the amounts” that banks can charge for payment incidents, believes Matthieu Robin, Bank/Insurance Project Manager at UFC-Que Choisir.
The association estimates that consumers could save more than a billion euros if rejection fees were limited to 8 euros.
It also asks for more transparency from the banks, only two of which - the Postal Bank and Bred - systematically retrocede the double invoicing of rejections that occur when the customer's account has not been funded before the second attempt to debit an invoice. .
