VIDEO. "I don't know how I'm going to survive": stricter bank overdraft rules to combat over-indebtedness worry customers

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Agathe is regularly overdrawn at the end of the month. She just learned that the rules for spending more than the money available in her account will soon be stricter. "As a self-employed artist, I don't have a status that guarantees job security or a regular income. So, I'm worried that the laws might be tightened," the young woman confides.

Any overdraft exceeding €200 will be treated as consumer credit. In other words, it will be factored into each customer's debt-to-income ratio. While today a French person with a net income of €3,000 and expenses of €700, including rent, can hope to negotiate an overdraft of over €400, for example, next year the bank could limit it to €300 to comply with the maximum permitted debt-to-income ratio of approximately 33%.

Stricter rules are worrying a single mother. She has four euros left in her account, but she just spent 50. The recreation center leader earns slightly more than minimum wage. Without an overdraft facility, she wouldn't be able to make ends meet. "It's really for groceries, for bills. I don't know how I'm going to survive," she laments.

The new rules will primarily affect the most vulnerable households and could lead to additional costs for them. "Until now, customers were relatively protected by their overdraft facility. Now, they will find themselves directly in unauthorized overdraft, and that can trigger a cascade of fees which, ultimately, are not in the customer's best interest, since they will once again end up with even larger debts," explains Marie Rialland, deputy director of Moneyvox.fr. More than one in five French people are already overdrawn by the 16th of the month.