UFC-Que Choisir requests that the government reduce bank incident fees 17 times more than in Germany

Bank incident fees in France are higher than in neighbouring countries. UFC-Que Choisir, a consumer defense organization, has condemned this Tuesday, June 7, and called on the government for a reduction.

These costs are especially relevant in the case of rejection of direct debit. According to the association, they are the cause of a “scandalous” bank drain of 1.8 million euros on the consumer’s budget.

This is evident in the fact that all banks apply the 20 euro limit for rejection of direct debit, according to UFC Que Choisir. 8 euros are also available under an “intervention committee”.

According to the association, these interventions lasted less than 30 seconds on average. It also rated the French banks’ margins for these incident costs as 86%.

Direct debit rejection fees are 17 times more expensive in France than Germany, 8x higher than Italy, and 3x higher than Belgium, according to UFC-Que Choisir.

Direct debits are made even if an account is in the red beyond authorized overdraft. Only the intervention commission is charged. However, “one bank in four (24%)” members of the Banques Populaires – Caisse d’Epargne can do nothing but to send their customers an “information letter” at an average cost of 10.70 euro, according to the press release.

These practices are being exposed by the UFC-Que Choisir, who urges the government to “reduce the excesses in the banks in terms incident costs” at the hearing for the defense of purchasing power.

“As soon competition ceases to work, the public authorities will be able to intervene in the market to regulate it,” says AFP Matthieu Robin. He also mentioned that the UFC-Que Choisir’s Bank/Insurance project manager, Matthieu Robin, said that “as soon as competition doesn’t work, the public authority are in our opinion legitimate to intervene to regulate this market.”

According to the association, consumers could save more that EUR1 billion if rejection fees were reduced to EUR8.

It also demands transparency from banks. Only two of them – Bred and Postal Bank – retrocede the double invoice of rejections that occurs when the customer’s account is not funded before the second attempt at debiting an invoice. .