BNP Paribas to charge customers
Bank introduces €2.50 fee for basic accounts - the latest large establishment to do so in France
BNP Paribas has become the latest large bank to charge customers a fee to hold an account.
From January 1 customers will have to pay €2.50 a month, or €2 per month if they opt to have their statements delivered by email instead of post.
People aged under 26 and those holding the bank’s Esprit Libre accounts are not affected.
BNP has written to customers to explain that the fee covers the costs of making credits and withdrawals, overseeing the account and protecting personal data.
The banks said such services, until now received as standard and for free by its customers, must now be paid for as the “legislative environment” and “risk of fraud” was pushing up the costs of delivering them.
While banks have typically charged for an array of services, the habit of making customers pay simply for holding an account is new, but making rapid progress.
Baisc account fees have risen 50% on average between 2013 and 2016, while other charges have remained stable.
European legislation has put a cap on several charges, such as those on authorised overdrafts and this coupled with the drop in income from low interest rates led one bank head to comment to Le Monde that if charges were not applied, then accounts would be operating at a loss.
Roughly 75% of banks in France charge for accounts: Crédit Mutuel began in October and Société Générale also plans to start billing customers at €2 in 2016. The newspaper Les Echos reports that LCL could follow.
Both banks plan to charge far above the average annual tariff of €17.99 (a figure reached by Le Monde using the Choisir ma banque website).
However a spokesman for the Association française des usagers des banques (Afub)Serge Maître said the people could fight the charges, which are a unilateral change in their contract.
“The have two months to contest these new tariff conditions in writing. With regards to the law, the bank cannot apply them,” he said.
However Le Parisien commented that it was unlikely customers were going to engage in a lengthy legal battle with a bank over €2 a month.
