The vast majority of bank rates in 2020 are stable or falling, said on Wednesday a study by the Advisory Committee on the Financial Sector (CCSF). On the other hand, their readability has become difficult, denounces for its part the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir.
The prices of 109 establishments in the comparator
The CCSF study compared the prices of 14 standard services from 109 establishments, including 101 network banks and 8 online banks, between the end of December 2019 and the beginning of January 2020, the period during which new price lists are published. In detail, six rates are stable, two of which remain free (direct debits and transfers by internet), five rates are falling and three are increasing. The biggest price increases relate to occasional transfers in branches (+ 4.1%) and account maintenance (+ 3.17%). The cost of providing an international direct debit payment card increases on average by 0.8%.
On the other hand, the costs of setting up a SEPA direct debit mandate decreased the most (-6.8%). The other decreases remain marginal, such as the provision of a systematic debit payment card (-0.85%), the contribution to a loss or theft insurance offer for means of payment (-0.2%), the subscription to products offering account status alerts via SMS and the provision of an international debit card with deferred debit (-0.1%). The CCSF, a consultative body on which representatives of financial institutions and customers sit equally, also reports on changes in information on bank rates.
"Even more unreadable" rates
Since the start of the year, banks have been required to comply with a European directive aimed at harmonizing the name of the main banking services and fees so that they can be compared from one country to another. Gradually, French banks will therefore have to replace their standard extract of the tariffs with a tariff information document (DIT). But for UFC-Que Choisir, "while the European document had to make the tariffs clearer", these are "even more illegible" in 2020 with hundreds of tariffs listed or prices displayed "on a basis as well annual than quarterly or monthly ".
"More than a third of professionals (36%) took the opportunity to further burden their customers with an information overload by detailing each of their banking packages," denounces the organization. The latter calls on the public authorities to legislate by maintaining the standard extract of the tariffs, expressed on an annual basis and specifying the capping of payment incident costs for fragile bank customers.