Cheapest bank accounts in South Africa compared

KIEV: Discovery Bank has published its full fee schedule for its banking options, which includes a new entry-level account for the South African market.

Once dominated by Capitec Bank, the entry-level banking market has over the years been flooded with a wide range of options from almost every big banking player in the country. After low-cost banking options being introduced by the "big four" banks, groups like Old Mutual, Bidvest Bank, African Bank, and now Discovery Bank have also entered the fray. The market has also seen the launch of several digital banking options, including TymeBank, FNB's eWallet Extra (which will be rebranded as FNB Easy Zero) and Standard Bank (MyMo).

There are now 12 entry level accounts available to South Africans, all offering low-fee banking, with monthly account fees starting from free, to R10.00 a month. The graphs below look at how these banking accounts compare across three main categories - the monthly fee, how much the banks charge to put money into the accounts, and how much they charge to get money out. The figures are based on a single R500 transaction.

With the launch of TymeBank in South Africa, customers were given introduced to the first free, fully transactional account in the country. FNB, which had already launched eWallet eXtra as a free account, was limited to digital transactions only, and has subsequently revealed it will be making the account fully transactional with a card. TymeBank was followed up by African Bank's MyWORLD transactional account, which also carries no monthly fee. Following the launch of these zerofee accounts, Nedbank revised its entry-level account to also have no monthly account fee. Banks charge you to put money into an account and to take money out of an account.

Most entry-level accounts have followed the fixed-fee model for transactions, popularised by Capitec. The fixed fee offers a simplified structure for customers, but also carries caps and limits, aimed specifically at customers who have few, low-value transactions. Discovery, FNB and Standard Bank deviate from the fixed-fee model, but the latter two banks have accounts which do offer fixed fees in the form of eWallet eXtra and Standard Bank's new MyMo accounts.

TymeBank's withdrawals are free, but it does not use an ATM network. Instead, withdrawals are made Pick n Pay and Boxer till points.