Why online banks have become essential

How to save hundreds of euros of fees and to earn more on its investments, with banks and brokers on the Internet.

to Have his account in a bank branch costs more expensive. Gone are the days of chequing accounts free of charge. From 2015, the banks have generalized the account maintenance fees, around 24 € per year in large networks. More than 90 % in levies, according to the Observatory of bank fees. The annual fees for the cards also climb. They converge, on average 65 €, depending on the site Panorabanques.com.

By adding all the pay services (card payments and cheques, withdrawals, transfers, permissions, levies, dues cards with insurance, etc), the average cost of a bank account up to 150 €, according to the national Association of consumers and users, CLCV, and close to 200 € depending on the site Better - Banque.com.

Despite the annual summary of fees, must be sent to all clients for the past ten years, 26 % of French people have no idea what their bank costs them, and 51 % have a rough idea of the costs of their current account, according to a survey OpinionWay for Fortuneo. Gold 70 % say they are ready to change your institution for less than 150 € in savings per year, according to the same survey.

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The reasonable rates of the banks discount

Go to the online bank allows precisely to save the bulk of the 150 to 200 € collected in the networks of agencies. The three leaders of the French market, Boursorama, Fortuneo, and ING Direct, will not take in effect virtually nothing. Everything is free, transfers, withdrawals through the bank card MasterCard, provided that you comply with some commitments (domiciliation of revenue or minimum savings, use their credit card at least once per month, for example). All in all, the bank fees would be limited to 10.54 € per year at Fortuneo and 12,80 € for Boursorama, and again, especially for the active profiles, especially as a result of fees on payments and withdrawals by bank card outside the euro zone.

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The offer of the banks to discount has grown over the decades. First to be launched there are twenty-five years, the Direct Bank, which became Axa Banque, is no longer really an online bank and does most of the prices also soft, since it is attached to the network of insurers of the same name. But others are initiated on this segment.

With the Account Nickel, taken over by BNP Paribas since 2017, the customers have an account with CB subscribed in a bureau de tabac for € 20 per year. On a principle comparable, Crossroads Bank offers its account current C-zam, with CB, for 5 € at the opening and then 1 € per month. It is also the spirit of Monabanq (2 € per month with CB Visa Classic).

The costs, a key factor in the performance

Some banks remotely affiliated with the major networks, like BforBank (Crédit agricole), or Hello bank! (BNP Paribas), also offer basic banking services with CB free under conditions. Finally, in the wake of the Orange Bank, will be built by the telecom operator from 2016 on the foundations of Groupama Banque, other "néobanques", or "fintechs", are trying their foray into this market, as the French Eko by CA (Crédit agricole), the young shoot Anytime, or the German N26. In addition, most offer welcome gifts, up to 80 euros or more to new clients, like ING Direct, Fortuneo or Boursorama. All the more reason to take the plunge !

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In addition to savings on the cost of banking services, invest their money through banks and online brokers is also used to reduce costs and greatly increase the profitability of its heritage. Because the fees are a key element of the performance, such as the regular recalls to the financial markets Authority. Gold, on the 1700 billion euros placed in life insurance, we can estimate that the management fee to at least $ 9.5 billion on the funds in euros and 7.5 billion on the fund units of account (UA), or more than 17 billion euros of costs per year.

online, you should receive funds in euros to be more profitable. First asset, no entrance fees, when the banks continue to post fees on payments that may exceed 2 %, even if they reduce commonly to 0.5 % by "commercial gesture", in order to convince customers to stay.

Second asset, the funds in euros of contracts on the Internet generally display higher returns to most of the contracts, banking, and much better for savers who wish to diversify their contract with UA, that is to say, of the investment fund.

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outside of Boursorama, which imposes no constraints on payment on its euro-denominated funds, the majority of contracts on the Internet usually offer a first euro funds are available without restriction, and a second, better paid, but reserved to customers who accept to diversify their payments on the CPU to be more risky. Savers could also put their entire payments security with a yield of 1.65% in 2018 on the fund Eurossima, Generali, proposed in various contracts (see table below), with 1.9% with the General Assets of Spirica (agricultural Credit), or 2 % with Suravenir Performance (group Cresaid-Mutuel Arkéa), already better than those of most of the contracts bank.

The funds in euros of the contracts on the Web often offer yields higher than those of traditional banks.

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The offer of diversified funds has been enriched

For those who accept an element of risk, to diversify its life insurance allows you to benefit from rate even higher. The performance has reached 2.25% in 2018 on the fund Netissima, Generali, accessible, provided that at least 30 % of its disbursements in UA, 2.8% in the fund Suravenir Opportunity, or 2.9 % on the fund Allocation Long-Term, Spirica, two euro funds reserved for payments consisting of at least 40 % of CPU.

In Placement-direct.fr the euro funds of SwissLife proposed in the contract Darjeeling provides, as to him, yields progressive according to the share in CPU and amount of contracts : 1.7 % - for contracts of less than 250000 € with 20% CU - 2.5 % - for those who have more than 55 % in UC, and up to 2.7% for those who are in excess of 250,000 € with more than 55% of diversification.

The third advantage of online contracts is that they give access to hundreds of funds diversified, stock or real estate, with zero fee payment, and often zero arbitration costs between these funds. As for the banks in line, the offer is extended. The pioneers have been joined by numerous competitors claiming sometimes the label of "fintech" in putting forward innovative services of "roboadvisor", that is to say, a certain automation of the advice of the investment allocation. Among them, we can cite Yomoni, WeSave, recently bought by Amundi (Credit agricole), Advise, Mary Quantify, FundShop, Nalo, Grisbee or Private Investor.

"In terms of investment, you win what you don't pay", explained recently, with malice, John Bogle, founder of the american giant of the index tracking, Vanguard, passed away January 16 at age 89. All his life, he has praised the interest for investors to remove intermediaries in order to increase the profitability of their investments, especially with index funds. These funds that follow stock indexes take up to five to ten times less costs than the competing funds, especially in the case of index funds and Exchange-traded, commonly called "trackers" or "ETF" (Exchange Traded Funds). Their management costs are, for example, of 0.25 % per annum for the fund Lyxor CAC 40, which tracks the performance of the top 40 French values, or 0.15 % for BNPP Easy EN S&P 500, which follows the evolution of the 500 major u.s. stocks.

Purchase of the funds, trackers or shares directly listed in the stock Exchange allows to save 1% to 2% or more each year, compared to the costs of management of traditional funds. A condition to manage his / her securities account or share savings Plan with an online broker. In a classic bank, a newbie investor in the Stock market with a portfolio of 10000 € which has diversified into 20 shares or trackers of different will pay around 170 € cost of purchase and more than 120 € of rights of custody. By comparison, the best online brokers does not collect any custody and offer the brokerage fees are very reduced (see the table above) when the portfolio is over-stocked.

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The leaders of the online brokers offer discounted rates to their customers with a portfolio well filled.

Source: rates of the online brokers