You should have already received it, or you will soon: every January, your bank provides you with a complete statement of the fees paid the previous year. Here’s how to use it to save money.
This is one of the characteristics that makes your banker a merchant like no other. Apart from a few specific tariff lines, all linked to payment incidents, it has not no obligation to notify you before debiting the price of its services from your account.
An exceptional regime which is not without its problems. It has, in fact, two faults: one lack of transparency, since you don’t know exactly what you are paying for; A lack of competitionbecause you don’t know exactly what you are paying, which makes it difficult to compare with other offers available on the market.
Bank charges: prohibit invoicing without prior information
One tool, however, allows you to monitor your banking consumption: THE annual summary of expenses. Introduced in 2009, this document, which your bank is obliged to make available to you each year, brings together all the fees, recurring or not, deducted during the previous year from your account. Check your mailbox (if you still receive your statements by mail) or your online banking area: you should have already received your statement for the year 2023, or it should not take long.
The document, a little dusty in the digital age, is far from perfect. However, for those who want to take the time to use it well, it can help answer two questions: am I paying too much in bank charges? And, if so, how can I reduce my budget?
1 – Evaluate your bank’s pricing policy
This is the first number that jumps out at you: your annual statement gives you the total amount spent on bank charges. On this basis, you will be able to evaluate your bank’s pricing policy in relation to the rest of the market by comparing, for example, this figure with those provided by our bank rate comparator. You might be surprised: depending on the brand and the region, the price disparities can be spectacular, sometimes going from single to triple. Even abysmal, if you integrate online banks into the landscape.
For the evaluation to be fruitful, the ideal is to from your actual consumption, the one which, precisely, is detailed in the statement. Some banks, in fact, can be competitive on consumption profiles and much less on others. To refine the search, the ideal is to personalize your profile, using, for example, the public comparator accessible on the internet.
If this manual configuration bores you, you can also rely on typical profiles, by looking for the one that is closest to your uses. Our comparator offers you three: a classic profile; a young profile, dedicated to those under 25; and a premium profile, with greater needs, particularly in terms of payment methods. The game is worth it: on the premium profile for example, the annual bill can range from 0 euros in some online banks to more than 250 euros in the least competitive brands.
Bank rates 2024: here are the cheapest banks in France
2 – Take stock of the reality of your needs
The result of this comparison is not to your taste? You obviously have the possibility of changing banks. But also that ofoptimize the invoice by staying with your bank, starting by checking that the products and services you are paying for are in line with your needs.
An example: do you have a premium bank card, but you don’t travel or travel little? Do you pay a lot in cash or checks? You might consider going back down to a classic map. According to our price statement, as of January 16, 2024, moving from a Visa Premier (132.28 euros per year on average) to a Visa Classic (45.68 euros) represents a annual saving of more than 86 euros.
More generally, check that you are not paying for products and services that you do not need: paid insurance on payment methods, balance alert packages, reviews, etc. When it comes to pricing, banks are, in fact, capable of great creativity.
More generally, check that you are not paying for products and services that you do not need: paid insurance on payment methods, balance alert packages, reviews, etc. When it comes to pricing, banks are, in fact, capable of great creativity.
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3 – Beware of packages
Group offers (or packages) of banking services undoubtedly have advantages. That, in particular, of allowing you to monthly pay your banking budget.
Bank charges: don’t get fooled by service group offers
However, these packages are not always financially attractive, far from it. Based on the consumption profiles already mentioned, we recently compared the annual cost of packages from traditional banks with the price of pay-as-you-go services. Result: on the classic profile, the package is more expensive almost 9 times out of 10.
The availability of your annual statement of expenses is therefore an opportunity to look at what exactly these packages cost you, and to assess whether you would make savings by paying only for the products and services that you actually use.
The ranking of the cheapest banks as of January 1, 2024