You are thinking about opening a term account in order to grow your savings in the short or medium term but you are still hesitant. Is your money really blocked? How soon can you get your money back? In the event of early withdrawal, what are the penalties? Before making your choice, discover all the answers to your questions here.
The term account is a savings product that allows you to benefit from increasingly attractive rates. According to the latest statistics from the Banque de France, the average remuneration of term accounts over a period of up to two years amounts to 3.92%a record for more than 10 years.
Furthermore, the term account is a secure investment, the capital being 100% guaranteed. In a press conference held at the end of March, France Assureurs explained that term accounts are recording record collections to the detriment of deposits and bank books. 75% of this net collection corresponds to investments less than 2 years old.
By placing your savings in a term account, you accept, in return for remuneration based on fixed, progressive or variable rates, block this money for a predefined period. 3 months, 12 months, 2 years or even 5 years, the term account holding period is defined when the contract is opened.
When is interest paid?
To place your savings in the term account, you make a single payment which will generate interest throughout the life of your contract. Interest is most often paid over time but for certain contracts, such as those of more than 12 months marketed by the BNP Paribas bank, interest is paid each year.
How soon can you recover your funds? Do you have the possibility of recovering your money before chance and under what conditions? MoneyVox interviewed several financial institutions to find out their practices. In the vast majority of cases, it is possible to recover your capital early… But often with penalties.
Investment: rates close to 5%, here are the best term accounts for your savings
A maximum period of 32 days…Before luck
Before luck. The possibility of recovering all or part of the amount you have placed in a term account before chance depends on the bank or broker with whom you subscribe it. Within the Monabanq online bank, for example, a partial or total withdrawal is possible… But the saver recovers his funds within a maximum of 30 days. This is a consequence of the European banking regulations who sets this deadline 32 days maximum.
At Placement-direct.fr, the time limit for receiving funds, before chance, from the term account to your current account is 2 days maximum, due to transfer times, after this famous 32-day notice. Same case for term accounts held at BNP Paribas.
At Distingo, only a total redemption is possible, which will therefore result in the closure of the term account. The balance as well as the gross interest will be automatically and obligatorily paid into the Distingo savings account: the capital the day after closing and the gross interest deducted from tax and social security deductions the day after, specified Distingo, contacted by MoneyVox . It will therefore take two days after their request for the saver to recover their funds. Distingo does not apply the 32-day notice period.
Financial institution | Deadline for payment of funds in the event of early withdrawal | Deadline for payment of lucky funds |
---|---|---|
Monabanq | 30 days maximum (on the customer’s current account) | term account expiry date (on the customer’s current account) |
Distingo | 2 working days (on the Distingo bank book) | 2 working days after opening the term account (on the Distingo bank book) |
BoursoBank | The day of the closure request (on the customer’s current account) | 1 working day (on the customer’s current account) |
Grape (Younited Credit) | Early withdrawal not possible | 1 working day |
BNP Paribas | 1 working day, on the customer’s current account (after 32 days notice period) | 1 working day (on the customer’s current account) |
Placement-direct.fr | 2 working days (after 32 days notice period) | 2 working days |
*Non-exhaustive table
chance. Ultimately, the deadlines are much shorter. The recovery time for funds is 7 days at Placement-direct.fr on the current account used to fund the term account, explains the broker. The saver recovers the funds in his current account the day after the due date. If this falls on a weekend, the funds will be in the account on Monday, BNP Paribas specifies. For term accounts on the Raisin platform, payment of the capital and interest due is made on the business day following the due date.
Attention. Many banks, such as Monabanq, BNPP or BoursoBank, make opening a term account conditional on having a current account within the establishment. Once the payment has been made when the term account expires, the amounts are immediately available to the customer’s current account. If, on the other hand, you hold a term account with a broker for example or through the Raisin platform, you will need to add approximately 2 days of interbank delay.
…And penalties
By subscribing to a term account, you agree in theory to block this amount until the predetermined expiry date. By recovering your funds before the end, you break the contract and this decision can cost you dear. In the event of exit before maturity, the remuneration bears a penalty corresponding to 25% of the gross interest acquired on the date of early repayment, thus specified Placement-direct.fr.
On the side of BNP Paribas and Distingo, the rates of return are lower. Thus, for Distingo’s 12-month CAT, normally remunerated at 3.50%, if the saver closes his investment between the 2nd and 6th months, the rate applied will be 0.10%, 1% between 6 and 9 months. and finally 2% between 9 and 12 months.
At BNP Paribas, the term account pays 3.80% over three months, 4% over six months and 3.35% over one year. In the event of partial or total withdrawal before chance, the rate applied to the amount withdrawn is that of the opening of the CAT, less -0.50%. BoursoBank makes it even simpler: in the event of early withdrawal from its term account, no interest is paid.
banking institution | Partial withdrawal before luck | Closing before chance |
---|---|---|
Monabanq |
| If closed in the first quarter: no interest towards Beyond, no penalty |
BoursoBank | Impossible | No interest in |
Distingo (12 months) | Impossible |
|
Placement-direct.fr | Impossible | Penalty of 25% of the gross interest acquired on the date of withdrawal |
BNP Paribas | Rate applied at opening of the term account reduced by -0.5% | Rate applied at opening of the term account reduced by -0.5% |
Grape (Younited Credit) | Impossible | Impossible |
*Non-exhaustive table
(1) The saver must keep at least 500 euros on the CAT, otherwise it will be closed
The very particular case of Raisin
Raisin is a German online broker which offers French investors several term accounts distributed today by 7 European establishments: Younited Crdit in France, the fintech Klarna Bank in Sweden, Alior Bank in Poland, CKV Centrale Kredietverlening in Belgium, J&T Banka in Czech Republic, Privatbanka in Slovakia and Šiaulių Bankas in Lithuania.
the exception of the term account proposed by Alior Bank, no early withdrawal is possible except in cases of force majeure, financial difficulties or death, specified Raisin MoneyVox. For the term account of the Polish bank Alior Bank, early withdrawal is possible. But the image of BoursoBank, no interest will be towards the saver.
Another constraint of the term account: the entry ticket. The amount required to open this investment depends on the bank or broker chosen. While at Distingo Bank, the initial investment is 1000 euros, or 3000 euros at Monabanq, you will need to place at least 10,000 euros at Placement-direct.fr or even 50,000 euros at BNP Paribas.
Furthermore, unlike regulated savings accounts, the interest generated on your term account, like bank accounts, is subject to the flat tax of 30% (i.e. 12.8% income tax + 17.2 % of social security contributions).
Compare the best term accounts