Bank: What is the average level of the agios billed to you?

Do you know how much you really cost you a banking overdraft? Many French people still ignore it, but the average rate of agios is around 15%… and can climb far beyond in certain establishments. Explanations.

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Catch -up session. On the occasion of financial education week, the drafting of Capital Return to the questions of money that are the most problematic to the French, according to the latest study referring to the matter, “The investigation into financial education of the general public”conducted by the Banque de France and the CSA Institute in 2023. Conducted every two years on an OECD level (38 member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), this survey makes it possible to compare the level of financial knowledge of adults in these different countries.

Among the questions that posed the most difficulty during the last edition, we find this: “Do you think what is the average rate of agios practiced by the various banks?” It should first be noted that 71% of respondents give the right answer when asked what agios are, namely “The interests collected by the bank when an account is uncovered”. On the other hand, 40% of them admit that they do not know how much these costs amount to an average of these costs. And among the responses given, opinions are highly fragmented: 14% of respondents estimate that they amount to 2.5%, 16% to 5%, 12% around 7.5%, 7% to around 10% and 11% around 15%.

A well -kept secret

It is in reality surprising, because the rate of agios or overdraft costs “Result from voluntarily complicated and inexpensive formulas, to which have been added for the past twenty years commissions, independent of Alternative amounts : the intervention commissions (costs collected by the bank following a payment incident, editor’s note), the rejection costs, etc. ”explains Laurent Denis, lawyer in the Place Lawn Place. To stick to the interests of agios, the latter are generally around 15%.

They cannot exceed a rate called wear rate (fixed by the Banque de France), which is generally between 15% and 20%: 19.04%for example since January 1, 2025. In its 2023 report, the observatory of banking prices notes that on the French market, “14 establishments display an interest rate varying between 7% (Bforbank, Boursorama Banque and Fortuneo Banque) and 16.50% (Banque Populaire Rives de Paris)”. It is therefore possible to find rates of agios varying from single to double, and the most severe of which are well in a slice included Between 15% and 20%.

However, it is imperative to recall that the interest rate practiced by your bank in the event of an overdraft must imperatively be communicated to you. This is not the case in the majority of cases, since in its 2023 survey, the financial sector advisory committee notes that out of 100 banks passed under a magnifying glass, “72 establishments do not display (the interest rate) and invite their customers to consult their advisor or indicate that this rate is calculated from another indicator that can be the rate of wear, the establishment’s banking rate or the monetary market rate (…)”. In other words, the shortcomings in financial culture are not only because of the French!