For any purchase, it is better to pay by having the money required on your current account. Otherwise, you expose yourself to important inconvenience, penalties, even a prison sentence. Explanations.
It was in 2001 and 2002, at the height of the bursting of the Internet bubble, that a record was recorded. At that time, more than 6.5 million payments had been declared without provision. This figure fell under 4.9 million in 2006, including just over 665,000 cases for bank cards. 2007 and 2008 could experience a strong rise with the increase in inflation.
If certain ends of the month are difficult to complete, you should not give in to the temptation to pay your purchases without ensuring that the balance of your account allows it. A payment without provision, by check but also by bank card, starts a very supervised process which can be very heavy with consequences. But before you get there, your bank must first contact you by any agreed means with you: phone, email, letter. It is for her to understand what is going on and immediately find a solution to immediately recover the sums that are missing on the account. An overdraft authorization can cover this incident for agios.
Registration in the central files of checks between 1 to 5 years
If the missing sum is not reconstituted, the law obliges the bank to register for the central file of checks, whether it is this means of payment or a bank card. From this moment, you no longer have to issue a check. To be sure, you will be invited to make your checkbooks and will receive a registered letter, specifying the prohibition of checkbook, the number of the incriminated check, the amount, the balance of the account before the operation, and inviting you to a quick regularization. In the event of a payment not provisioned by bank card, the law speaks of abusive use, you will have to put your card back, and sometimes all the others payment methods in your possession.
Within two days that follow, all banking establishments are informed of the prohibition and your accounts held in other banks fall under this prohibition, even if they operate properly or if they are ascended with another person. In other words, you will no longer be able to issue a check for all the accounts you hold.
Arrived at this stage, it is better to try to regularize as quickly as possible. “The regularization of an unpaid check takes place in three ways, indicates the Banque de France. Either by the supply of the account which allows the beneficiary of the check to deposit it again for collection. Either the beneficiary is paid in cash and puts the check to his issuer who transmits it to his bank for proof of regularization. Either the amount is given to the bank and blocked for a year.”
If this is not the case, you will no longer be able to use a checkbook for a period from 1 to 5 years or a bank card for 2 years. It is your bank that requests your withdrawal from the central check file. As long as the sums not provisioned are not reimbursed and the associated unpaid penalties, you will not find the right to issue checks or use a bank card, and you will remain registered on the file, available by all banks and merchants. Even after regularization, it is likely that your bank asks you to show, for a few weeks, good management of your finances to give you a checkbook or a bank card. In any case, your accounts must all be creditors so that your unsubscription for the file is effective.
Payment incident fees and penalties
A provision without provision explains to a series of costs. First those invoiced by the bank. From May 16, 2008, in the event of a unpaid check of an amount less than or equal to 50 euros, they cannot exceed 30 euros. For an amount greater than 50 euros, they are limited to 50 euros. It should be noted that the rejection on several occasions of the same check several times within 30 days of the first refusal, is considered as a single payment incident. For defects of provision with other means of payment, the penalties of banks do not exceed 20 euros.
In addition to banking costs, the penalty due to the public treasury must be added. It depends on the amount of the unpaid. It takes at least 5 euros. This double penalty if during the twelve consecutive months, there are three situations of non -provisioned payments. But it disappears if the situation is regularized within two months after the notification of the bank or if there was no defect in payment during the last 12 months sold.
Criminal conviction and basic service
As long as a payment defect is not regularized, it is better not to try to issue a check or force payment by bank card. If this were to be the case, you expose yourself to a criminal conviction, which can lead you to prison for a few months. And especially if you have removed the necessary provision after issuing the check.
While waiting to be authorized to set your purchases again by check or bank card and to compensate for the embarrassment of this ban, banks and consumer associations have agreed to set up a basic banking service since 2006. It notably includes a free withdrawal card in automatic ticket distributors and the possibility of proceeding with transfers and account samples. However, for recurrences or for people who do not comply with the rules imposed by law, banks can close the account.