The fee information document is the only text where your bank writes its prices in a form it did not choose. The royal decree of 5 February 2019 imposes the content, the order and the vocabulary: twelve services, twelve headings identical from one bank to the next, a standardised presentation inherited from European implementing regulation 2018/34. Five minutes are enough to extract a real annual cost from it, provided you know that the "total annual fees" line never is one. Here is the method, on a dated document.
What exactly is a fee information document?
It is your bank's price list, in a mould imposed by law. The name sounds bureaucratic, and that is precisely the point: nobody wrote it to charm you.
The obligation comes from Book VII of the Belgian Code of Economic Law, spelled out by the royal decree of 5 February 2019 on the comparability of fees for services linked to a payment account. That decree fixes two things. First, the list of the most representative services linked to a payment account, each with a standardised term and definition taken from delegated regulation (EU) 2018/32. Second, the format: banks draw up the document following the standardised presentation rules and common symbol of implementing regulation (EU) 2018/34.
In practice, two documents from two different banks line up row by row. It is the only place in the Belgian banking market where comparison is mechanical rather than editorial. Wikifin, the FSMA's financial education programme, puts it in one sentence: the fees appear "in the fee brochure (officially called the 'Fee Information Document'), which you can obtain in every bank branch and on the bank's website".
Which services must appear in it?
Twelve, listed in the annex to the royal decree. Here they are in official order, with what each one hides in practice.
| Standardised term | What the line covers | Where it catches you |
|---|---|---|
| Maintaining the account | Managing the euro account | Often split into subscription + operations package |
| Providing a debit card | Card debited directly | Priced separately, per card per month |
| Providing a credit card | Deferred debit | Free the first year in some packs |
| Providing a prepaid card | Electronic money | "Service not available" at many banks |
| Cash withdrawal in euros | ATM and counter | The counter costs, the ATM does not |
| Cash withdrawal in another currency | Outside the eurozone | Fixed cost + currency conversion fee |
| Credit transfer in euros | SEPA | Free electronically, paid at the branch |
| Standing order | Recurring fixed amount | Usually inside the package |
| Direct debit | Authorised collection | Usually inside the package |
| Overdraft facility | Permission to go negative | An APR, not a flat fee |
| Account insurance | Insurance linked to the account | Rarely taken up, sometimes sold in a pack |
| Account statements | Balance and transactions | Free electronically, paper billed monthly |
When an institution does not offer one of these services, it says so — "Service not available" — instead of removing the line. That is useful: absence is information, and it is written down.
Which lines should you read first to find the real annual cost?
Three: account maintenance, the debit card, and paper account statements if you still receive them. The rest depends on how you bank.
Take a real document. The fee information document for the Crelan current account, dated 1 January 2026, shows at the top of the "General account services" section: annual subscription €30.00, annual basic operations package €12.00, total annual fees €42.00. Two lines further down, in the "Cards and cash" section: providing a debit card, monthly subscription for the first card €1.50, total annual fees €18.00 — the second card being €0.00.
A Crelan current account with one debit card therefore costs €60 a year, not €42. The €18 gap appears in no total anywhere: the reader has to do the addition. Add a Visa Classic at €3.00 a month, or €36.00 a year, and you reach €96.
This detail explains why two accounts advertised "at the same price" are not. A free current account in Belgium is generally free including the card; an account at €30 rarely is.
Why don't all banks charge the same way?
Because the fee document lets two business models coexist, and nothing forces them to converge: the flat fee and the per-item price.
In the flat-fee model, you pay a subscription that absorbs the operations. The KBC Compte Plus, at €4.25 a month since 1 January 2026, or €51 a year, includes unlimited paper transfers. The Belfius Beats New, at €46.80 a year without a credit card, works the same way. You pay a lot up front and nothing per use.
In the per-item model, the subscription is low and every action costs. The Crelan current account charges €1.50 for a branch transfer to another bank, €6.00 for an urgent transfer at the branch, €0.50 for a cash withdrawal at the counter, and €7.00 for a payment order rejected for insufficient funds. The KBC Compte de base, at €30 a year, follows the same logic.
Finally, the zero model: Argenta Green, Keytrade Keypack, CBC Pure Online and Belfius Beats Pulse are at €0 a year, with the trade-off that everything goes through a screen. At BNP Paribas Fortis, depending on the pack, the dial runs from €36 to €84 a year.
An account at €0 and an account at €51 a year are not compared on price. They are compared on how many times a year you push open a branch door.
Comparing therefore means knowing your own habits before opening the document. How many branch transfers a year? How many counter withdrawals? The ranking of Belgian banks gives each institution's annual cost, but the flat-fee-versus-per-item trade-off is yours to make.
What is the annual statement of fees, and what is it for?
It is the document that tells you what you actually paid — and it arrives once a year, often unopened.
The royal decree of 5 February 2019 requires the provider to draw up a statement of fees listing all fees for all services linked to the payment account, a separate statement per account, using the standardised terms from the list of twelve. The format follows implementing regulation (EU) 2018/33. In other words: the statement of fees and the fee information document speak the same language, line for line.
That is what makes the comparison worth doing. You take the statement received for the past year, place it next to the fee document of the bank across the street, and you get a gap in euros rather than an impression. No marketing brochure allows that exercise.
A third document exists for what falls outside the payment account: by the end of February each year, the bank must provide supporting documentation for services linked to a non-regulated savings account, safe deposit box rental, a term account, or remote operations. Unit price, number of operations over the year, annual total.
Should you trust comparison sites rather than the fee document?
Both, but in this order: the comparison site to narrow the field, the fee document to decide. The reason is a simple update lag, and it can be measured.
KBC announced on 30 September 2025, by press release, that the Compte Plus would move from €3.75 to €4.25 a month and the Compte Base to €2.50 a month from 1 January 2026 — €51 and €30 a year respectively. On 1 August 2026, seven months after those prices took effect, a well-known Belgian comparison site still showed the KBC Compte Plus at €45 a year and the Compte Base at €24 a year. The gap is not huge in absolute terms, six euros a year; in principle it is. A wrong tariff is a wrong tariff.
The FSMA's current-account comparison tool, attached to the Wikifin programme, partly escapes the problem: it is fed by data the banks send to the regulator themselves. Our current-account comparator shows each institution's real annual cost, but the rule applies to us too — before opening an account, open the dated fee document of the bank concerned.
What should you do when your bank changes its tariffs?
You have two months, and a free way out. It is one of the rare windows where the balance of power tilts your way.
The bank must inform you of any tariff change at least two months before it takes effect — adjustments to interest rates driven by market conditions being the exception. If you do not react, you are deemed to accept the new conditions. If they do not suit you, during those two months you can close the account free of charge and move your money to another bank.
One special case is worth knowing: the basic banking service, governed by articles VII.56/1 to VII.59/3 of the Code of Economic Law. Its maximum price is set by law and indexed each year; from 1 January 2026, the bank may charge at most €20.34 a year. For that amount, electronic operations are unlimited and you are entitled to 36 manual operations. Access remains conditional: no other current account, no more than €6,000 in holdings, no more than €6,000 in credit agreements.
Alongside it, the universal banking service, born of a charter between the sector and the government, is aimed at customers who struggle with digital channels: a minimum of 60 manual operations a year, a debit card, and at least 24 cash withdrawals at the bank's own ATMs. Twelve banks have offered it since 1 January 2024, including Argenta, Belfius, BNP Paribas Fortis, CBC, Crelan, ING, KBC and vdk.
The five-minute method, step by step
- Download the dated document. Bank website, tariffs section. Check the date at the top: a 2024 document is useless to you.
- Note the total of the "account maintenance" section. Annual subscription plus operations package. At Crelan on 1 January 2026: €42.00.
- Add the debit card. Monthly subscription for the first card, multiplied by twelve. At Crelan: €18.00. Subtotal: €60.
- Add the credit cards you actually use. Crelan Visa Classic: €36.00 a year. A card that is free the first year comes at full price the second.
- Count last year's chargeable actions. Branch transfers, counter withdrawals, paper statements, rejected orders. Multiply by the unit price.
- Compare with the statement of fees your bank sent you. If the gap is more than ten euros, you have missed a line — or your habits have changed.
The guide on how to choose your bank covers these criteria profile by profile, and our analysis of banking fees in Belgium in 2026 sets out the full calculation across the eight main institutions on the market.
One last remark, from the field. The fee document is written to be comparable, not to be read — its standardised layout made it illegible by making it uniform. That is a poor trade-off, but it is the only text where a Belgian bank commits to a figure. The rest is brochure.
Sources
- Belgian Official Journal — Royal decree of 5 February 2019 on the comparability of fees for services linked to a payment account (published 19 February 2019)
- Crelan — Fee information document, Crelan current account (dated 1 January 2026)
- KBC — New rates for the KBC Compte Plus and KBC Compte Base from 2026 (press release, 30 September 2025)
- Wikifin / FSMA — How much does a current account cost you? (updated 17 February 2025)
- Wikifin / FSMA — The basic banking service (updated 9 December 2025)
- FPS Economy — Universal banking service (accessed 1 August 2026)
- Test-Achats — KBC raises its current account tariffs from 2026 (15 October 2025)
- Comparatif-Compte-Courant.be — Paid bank accounts in Belgium (accessed 1 August 2026)
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Frequently asked questions
Marion a travaillé six ans en agence, à Namur puis à Bruxelles, avant de passer côté rédaction en 2020. Elle a ouvert, fermé et transféré assez de comptes à vue pour savoir où se cachent les frais : le forfait « tout compris » qui exclut justement le virement instantané, la carte de crédit offerte la première année, le compte d’épargne dont la prime de fidélité s’évapore au premier retrait. Depuis, elle relit chaque janvier et chaque juillet les documents d’information tarifaire des banques belges, recalcule le coût annuel réel par profil, et vérifie ce que rapporte vraiment un taux affiché quand le plafond est de 500 € par mois. Ce qui l’agace : les comparatifs qui classent une banque première sur la qualité de son application alors que le client, lui, paie ses frais en euros.