South Africa’s 2017 banking fees compared

First National Bank has published its banking fee structure for the 2017/2018 financial year, marking the last of South Africa’s big banks to do so.

Standard Bank, Absa and Nedbank implemented their new banking fees earlier in the year, which included a complete restructuring from Standard Bank,a moderate increase from Absa, while Nedbank’s fee increases were not insignificant.

In March 2017, Capitec announced its new banking fees, which saw prices hiked across most of its transactions – however this was off a low base, with the bank’s much-loved single price transaction costs.

FNB’s new banking fees will come into effect from 1 July, and aside from a marginal increase in the monthly account fee for its Gold account, the bank has kept its fees largely unchanged from the 2016/17 period, and introduced two new accounts in the form of the FNBy and FNB Premier Fusion account.

For 2017/18, FNB has now introduced a fee for withdrawing cash from till-points and points of sale (from being free, previously). The R1.40 fee makes it the cheapest POS withdrawal fee of the major banks – except Nedbank, which still offers the transaction for free.

The next banking fee review will happen at the end of 2017, when Standard Bank, Absa and Nedbank update their fee structures. Capitec updates its fees in March of each year, while FNB follows with a review in July.

Below is a breakdown of select fees across South Africa’s retail banks’ ‘main’ accounts (‘Gold’ equivalents). All prices are based on pay-as-you-transact fees, after bundle limits, where available.

The full 2017 pricing for Nedbank’s Savvy Plus can be found here.

FNB Gold only offers the bundled account option. Withdrawals and [email protected] transaction fees come into effect after a combined R5,000 limit has been reached. Cash deposit fees come into effect after a R5,000 limit has been reached.