Since last October, Crdit Agricole has offered a new range of account packages, which replaces the Composer Account. CA customers, are you interested in switching to these new offers? It all depends on your consumption profile. We explain to you.
Goodbye Account dialing. Since October 2021, the 21million individual customers of Crdit Agricole can switch, without obligation, to a new range of service group offers, divided into three segments according to their needs, and in particular the type of bank card they want. The package Essential, invoices 9.90 euros per month to CA Nord Midi-Pyrnes (1), includes a classic Visa or Mastercard; Premium (15.50 euros per month) a Visa Premier or Gold Mastercard; Prestige (34 euros per month) a Visa Infinite or World Elite Mastercard.
the number of services included also grows with the price. The Prestige offer includes, for example, a fee deductible on all payments and withdrawals, including in foreign currencies, and premium insurance on payment methods.
Crdit Agricole tariffs
A look back
This change is not just cosmetic. It also marks the return of the all-inclusive philosophy, easier to understand for the customer, but also much less flexible.
Introduced at the start of 2010, the Compound Account was made up of a basement, invoiced 2.10 euros to the North Midi-Pyrnes turnover, integrating account maintenance, remote banking access, SEPA transfers and direct debits, balance alerts and account statements. The customer then had the possibility to choose, and to pay independently, his card and a number of modules, including overdraft control, account security or even pilot savings.
This choice owed nothing to chance. With its Compose Account, Crdit Agricole only applied the commitment made by the French Banking Federation in favor of customizable packages. A 2010 report (2), ordered by the Minister of the Economy, recommended, in fact, to put an end to the opacity of account packages by offering users formulas more suited to their real needs.
From this point of view, the new range of Crdit Agricole marks a step back. The customers of the green bank will lose in flexibility what it gains in simplicity. At the risk of paying again for services he needs little or little.
Bank charges : until 259 € savings thanks to our comparator
Strong increase for classic customers
The 2012 report of the CCSF Bank Tariff Observatory (3) had shown: the customizable group offers, put in place at the time by 3/4 of the banks, had led to an overall drop in prices. The return of all-inclusive formulas going, the reverse, increase the bill? To find out, we compared this annual invoice, before and after the change, by relying on two of the three profiles used by MoneyVox to award its Bank Trophies:
- a classic profile, corresponding to an average use of banking products and services;
- a premium profile, corresponding to more intensive use.
The details of the profiles
The results of this comparison are contrasting. On the classic profile, the average annual bill increases by 13.16% (from 171.72 euros to 194.31 euros) by switching to the new range. Conversely, the premium profile has a 13.53% decrease, from 220.08 euros to 190.31 euros.
| Classic Profile | |
| Average annual price at 1er September 2021 (Compose account) | 171.72euros |
| Average annual price at 1er January 2022 (Essential Offer) | 194.31euros |
| Evolution | + 13.16% |
| Average annual price per card at 1er January 2022 | 166,19euros |
| Premium Profile | |
| Average annual price at 1er September 2021 (Compose account) | 220.08 euros |
| Average annual price at 1er January 2022 (Premium Offer) | 190.31euros |
| Evolution | -13.53% |
| Average annual price per card at 1er January 2022 | 217.25 euros |
Very different developments depending on the fund
Please note: this is however corresponding averages of typical baskets. More concretely, the interest or not in switching to new formulas depends on the reality of your consumption and, above all, of the region in which you live. In fact, there are sometimes impressive price differences from one regional fund to another.
On the classic profile, the price change when switching from the Compose Account to the Essential package is unfavorable in the vast majority of cases. There are only two exceptions, in the Savoie (-0.86%) and Nord de France (-9.82%) CAs. When there is an increase, the contrasts are striking.
| Classic Profile / The 3 lowest increases | |
| Credit Agricole Provence Cte d’Azur | + 0.02% |
| Credit Agricole Touraine Poitou | + 1.66% |
| Credit Agricole North East | + 2.85% |
| Classic Profile / The 3 highest increases | |
| Credit Agricole Finistre | + 39.39% |
| Credit Agricole Guadeloupe | + 29.52% |
| Credit Agricole Ctes d’Armor | + 22.37% |
Same observation, but inversely, for the premium profile. The switch from the Composer Account to the Premium package will only be unfavorable, according to our profile, to the Aquitaine CA (+ 0.13%), to the Crdit Agricole Ile-de-France CA (+ 0.94%), to the Charente CA -Maritime Deux-Svres (+ 14.67%) and Guadeloupe sales (+ 20.47%). The operation is neutral at CA Provence Cte d’Azur. Elsewhere there is an advantage change but, again, it is very contrasted according to the regions.
| Premium profile / The 3 biggest drops | |
| Credit Agricole Savoie | -30.35% |
| Credit Agricole Touraine Poitou | -28.34% |
| Credit Agricole Corsica | -27.99% |
| Premium profile / The 3 smallest drops | |
| Credit Agricole Normandie-Seine | -4.80% |
| Credit Agricole Pyrnes Gascogne | -5.50% |
| Credit Agricole Champagne-Bourgogne | -6.53% |
In summary, if you are a Crdit Agricole client and your consumption brings you closer to our classic profile, you will generally be interested in keep your Composer Account. Conversely, if your profile is more premium, you must consider switching to the new packages. Either way, it’s worth taking a look at.
Often interesting card pricing
There is, however, a third option: abandon the packages to pass a card billing. Clear, pay only for the products and services that you actually use.
Still on the basis of our consumption profiles, this choice is, in fact, very often the most advantageous for the classic profile: in more than 7 caisses of 10. Opting for the Essential package, on the other hand, is only financially interesting in a caisse, North of France.
Conversely, the new Premium plan is the best choice in 8 cash registers of 10 on the Premium profile, against 4 for billing the card and 3 times for the Composer Account. If you want a Gold or Premier card, you are traveling outside the euro zone and you want full means of payment insurance, there is no need to hesitate.
Find the cheapest bank for you
(1) While the product and service catalogs are almost uniform in the 39 regional Crdit Agricole funds, this is not the case for the tariffs. As an example in this article, we rely on the CA Nord Midi-Pyrnes brochure dated January 1, 2022, whose prices are close to the national average. (2) Georges Pauget and Emmanuel Constans, Report on the pricing of banking services, July 2010. (3) Consultative committee of the financial sector, a consultative body between the public authorities, banks and user representatives, under the aegis of the Bank of France.