Several banks have decided to remove certain fees from their pricing policy.
50 cents here, 1 euro there… On the account statements of many French people, small expense lines are added very regularly even though they are not linked to any purchase. These are in reality fees collected by the bank, in addition to certain payments already obligatory, such as that of the bank card. On average, a total of more than 200 euros are collected each year by establishments. Good news: part of it will disappear very soon.
Fewer and fewer French people are doing it, but the bank card is not only used to pay. It also allows you to withdraw cash from an ATM, from any bank, anywhere in the country (and the world). In two clicks, you can easily fill your wallet with a few notes from your account.
Except that this harmless operation is not always free. When you do not withdraw the money from an ATM owned by your bank, fees apply. Not the 1st, but sometimes the 2e times, and, above all, after 3 or 4 withdrawals in the same month from other operators. This amounts to one withdrawal per week from a bank other than yours. If, on average, the French only make one or two withdrawals per month, a third of the population does not pay attention to the bank from which they withdraw the money. Suffice to say that over the year, these fees called “inappropriate withdrawals” can climb around ten euros.
But this will soon be over and millions of French people will (almost) no longer have to choose the right bank to make a withdrawal. BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Mutuel and CIC are gradually establishing a single distributor throughout France for the four brands.
Called “Cash Services”, they will allow customers of these establishments to make as many withdrawals as desired from these ATMs, installed in the branches, without fear of paying additional fees. The latter will simply continue to apply if several withdrawals are made from competitors, such as La Banque Postale, Crédit Agricole, Banque Populaire or even Caisse d’Epargne. These new machines also offer other services such as depositing checks, cash, printing bank details, making a transfer and accessing accounts.
This pooling of banks is implemented because distributors are less and less profitable. Cash withdrawal is expected to continually decline by 3% per year, leading to the elimination of 5,000 ATMs nationwide.