UFC-Que Choisir, a consumer defense organization, notes that France's banking incident fees are significantly higher than those in neighboring France.
She calls for the government to lower them.
According to the association, these fees are responsible for 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".
The association found that these interventions lasted less than 30 seconds on average, and compared the margins of French banks for these incident costs to 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 group can do nothing but to send their customers an "information letter" at an average cost of 10.70 euro. Details the press release.
We believe that the public authorities have the right to intervene
These practices are being exposed by the UFC-Que Choisir, who urges the government to "come the excesses banks into line with incident cost" at the hearing for the bill for defense of purchasing power. This bill will be presented after the legislative elections.
Matthieu Robin (Bank/Insurance Project Manager, UFC-Que Choisir) says that "as soon as competition doesn't work, the public authorities will be, in our opinion," legitimate to intervene and regulate the market. He suggests that banks should reduce the amount they can charge for payment incidents.
According to the association, consumers could save over a billion euro if rejection fees were kept at 8 euros.
It also demands transparency from banks. Only two banks - 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. .
