There is a day when the bank card heats up more than others.
Almost every month, nearly 10 million go overdrawn at least once. Between bills and everyday purchases, it is difficult for many households to keep their accounts in the green. A common situation, therefore, but far from trivial. And above all, worrying to say the least. While it has a greater impact on the poorest, this daily life on credit also affects households with higher incomes. But the bank account’s shift to negative occurs later in the month because families do not spend their money in the same way depending on their standard of living.
However, one element is common to everyone: the day after pay, we heat up the bank card! This is what emerged from a study carried out by INSEE among La Banque Postale customers. Once the account has been funded by salary and/or social benefits, expenses skyrocket.
On average, they are twice as high on this day as on any other day in the month. For people living on RSA or social benefits, it is even four times more than on another day. The reason for this phenomenon is clear: “the households concerned find themselves short of cash at the end of the month and are forced to postpone the expenses they wanted to make until the beginning of the following month”, explains to Linternaute Lionel Wilner, one co-authors of the study.
Apart from energy bills which are not taken into account, the French mainly spend their money in supermarkets, clothing stores, household appliances/DIY stores and at gas stations. Additionally, large cash withdrawals are made the day after payday (they withdraw twice as much as any other day in the month).
But this concentration of spending is a vicious circle: by quickly using the money received, the return to overdraft is almost immediate: 20% of RSA recipients, single-parent families or households living on social assistance are there again at the end of 10 days. However, it is impossible for these households to do otherwise, forced to have to meet their needs as soon as they have the necessary finances after several days of deprivation. January will not escape this phenomenon, which will also be accentuated by the expenditure made using the money that some will have received at Christmas and/or as a New Year’s gift.
If this spending phenomenon the day after pay is not specific to France (results are similar in the United States and the United Kingdom), it should be noted that the study only covers 250,000 La Postal bank. An establishment where households “are rather more precarious” than elsewhere. This therefore does not precisely reflect a general situation but gives a certain trend on the day when the French spend the most.
