138 euros collected by La Banque Postale to close the savings account A of a child who died of cancer at the age of 9. Here is the latest example from the highly controversial issue of inheritance costs. A lucrative business for the banks, which deserves to be supervised quickly.
The information made the media rounds. Monday evening, France Blue revealed that the parents of a child who died of cancer at the age of 9 in 2021 had been billed by La Banque Postale 138.20 euros for the closure of his Livret A, for inheritance costs. This news created a wave of emotion and caused La Banque Postale to backtrack.
After initially indicating that she was going to make a commercial gesture, she finally decided to reimburse the full cost, according to the response given on the France 5 broadcast, C You. In her defence, she explains that like all banking establishments, she applies bank processing fees during a succession, whether it is an ascendant or a descendant. These fees vary from 0,500 euros according to the assets of the deceased client and cover all the information needed to process the estate, she says.
A jackpot of 150 million euros
According to calculations by UFC-Que Choisir, inheritance costs are charged on average 233 euros by French banks and represent a windfall of 150 million euros per year. Compared to the same inheritance bank charges applied in 2012, the figures show a 28% increasei.e. three times more than inflation over the period, noted the consumer association in its latest study on the subject, published in October 2021. gold price invoicing on the pcule of the dead.
In terms of inheritance costs, it is the wild west since this tariff line is not part of the costs regulated by the regulations, unlike intervention commissions, rejection of direct debits and checks or PEA transfers. Result, these inheritance costs escape any economic logic since they vary from simple (120 euros at Credit Mutuel Center Est Europe) to quadruple (527 euros at LCL) depending on the establishment, according to UFC-Que Choisir.
The large price difference within the networks
An observation drawn up before that – at the end of 2020 – by a study by MoneyVox which already noted these wide disparities in prices within the same banking network. So a customer could then pay up to 3 times more expensive according to the Banque Populaire where it was, 5 times more expensive between the Crdits Agricoles Nord Est (75 euros) and Languedoc (370 euros), from simple to double between most Caisses d’Epargne and 1 to 2.5 between the Crdit Mutuels …
It is therefore the very justification of the level of the tariffs charged that arises. They seem to be disconnected from their real cost for the bank. The pantagrulic appetite of banks when it comes to invoicing inheritance costs can also go beyond account closures alone. A quarter of the banks do not hesitate to further cut funds if they are intended to feed accounts held with the competition. Indeed, if the heir is not one of their clients, the transfers are invoiced at the price of gold (145 euroson average) while this service is usually free for the living!, explained UFC-Que Choisir in its survey.
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According to his calculations, inheritance costs in France are twice as high as those in Belgium or Italy and even three times higher than in Spain.
Towards a framework for inheritance costs?
A situation that is reacting beyond consumer associations. The centrist senator from Eure Herv Maurey tabled a bill at the beginning of the year aimed at regulating these costs. It plans to allow the government to set the limits by decree. Banks take advantage of the fact that nobody looks at these fees when taking out a contract to apply often unjustified prices. My bill aims to prevent these practices, underlined the parliamentarian, questioned by MoneyVox.
At the time when purchasing power is the number one priority of households and that the executive plans to adopt a package of measures (lower gas prices, food vouchers, etc.) to relieve household wallets on the occasion of a bill of amending finances planned for the day after the legislative elections, the supervision of inheritance costs could be a boost of more consider. With a major advantage: its implementation would not cost one euro in the state coffers.
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