Bank card: these tips to thwart the payment ceilings imposed by your bank

Depuis le début de la pandémie de Covid-19, l'utilisation des espèces et des chèques suscite la méfiance. À la place, vous multipliez les achats par carte bancaire, au risque parfois d'être bloqués par vos plafonds de paiement. Voici quelques astuces pour éviter d'en arriver là.

It is one of the collateral effects of the pandemic: we are using our bank cards more and more often to pay our purchases.Despite the reassuring messages of the public authorities, which assured that the risk of being infected with the COVVID by manipulating parts and tickets was tiny, consumers have massively opted, in stores, for contactless payment, now used by 3French out of 4 (1).At the same time, the use of online commerce for purchases of goods has increased by approximately 30% since the start of the crisis.Eight times out of ten, they are paid by bank card.

Consequence of this more systematic recourse on the card, at the expense of species, but also of the check: the risk of seeing its blocked card increases.We cannot indeed spend without counting: banks apply payment ceilings, generally over 30 slippery days, the amount of which is sometimes limited to a few hundred euros, depending on the type of card you have, your recurring income orPlacements held in your bank.

Read on the subject: what you need to know about card payments

Admittedly, it is often possible to note ceilings punctually, or even definitively after negotiation with your bank.Before arriving there, there is however a trick to delay blocking: use another means of payment than the bank card when you buy online.

Payer avec PayPal

The best known alternative, and especially most often accepted by merchants, is called Paypal.The electronic portfolio invented more than 20 years ago in California has made safety its main argument: it makes it possible to avoid sharing with the merchant the numbers of your plastic bank card, and therefore to prevent the risks ofInterception by a cybercriminal.But it also allows you to preserve its payment ceilings.

The bank card, in fact, is not the only means of payment that can be connected to Paypal.You can also ask the service to directly collect its bank account.It's quite simple: it is enough to give it an IBAN, to sign a direct debit mandate in its favor and to satisfy a small verification operation which makes it possible to lift the payment limits put in place by default.

I don’t even now How to make a shopping list

— Olivia Collins Mon Jul 12 13:03:48 +0000 2021

To consult: the best bank offers with free card

Payer en plusieurs fois

Everyone, however, does not have and does not wish to have a PayPal account.If you are in this case, there is another solution, more and more frequently offered by merchant sites: payment in 3 or 4 times, which allows to spread the regulations and therefore its impact on your ceiling of payment.

This solution, however, is to be used in moderation.First of all because, excluding the special operation of the merchant, she is paying and can even cost very expensive - sometimes up to 20 euros - related to the paid amount.Then because there is always a risk, by dint of accumulating repayment deadlines, of having difficulty assuming them.

Read on the subject: Payment in several times: the best solutions to spread your expenses

Payer par virement SEPA

This is, no doubt, the solution for the future to pay online: the transfer.In France, it is unfortunately still rarely proposed by the merchants.This should change thanks to two major developments: the instant transfer and the possibility for the merchant to initiate payment, as part of an open banking system (or open banking)

Instant transfer first.It makes it possible to remove a major obstacle: the gap, at least 24 hours, between the emission of the traditional separate transfer and its reception.With the Instant Payment, this period falls at 10 seconds, including weekends and holidays.

Open Banking then.European regulations now offer the possibility to a merchant site, or to its payment service provider, to obtain approval authorizing it to initiate transfers directly from the bank account of its client, with its authorization of course.The number of e-merchants offering this service is still low in France (unlike for example Germany), but it should explode in the months and years to come.

Des règles de sécurité de plus en plus contraignantes pour les paiements par carte

The question of alternatives to the bank card to pay online is all the more since the safety rules that supervise these payments become increasingly strict and therefore complicate the act of purchase.The regulations thus generalize, from May 15, strong authentication for all payments from more than 30 euros.

Read on the subject: bank card: what changes for the safety of your payments

(1) Source: Opinionway survey for Sumup, carried out with a sample of 1,002 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over, from February 24 to 25, 2021.