Standard Bank’s new fees and account changes for 2021

Standard Bank has published its updated fee schedules for all its accounts, which will come into effect on 1 January 2021.

The price adjustments include a monthly account fee freeze on all but one account for 2021, as well as fee restructuring on basic transactions such as withdrawals and deposits.

Another change is the dropping of cheques, in line with an industry move to do away with that payment method, from 31 December 2020. Any cheques received before 31 December and processed in January 2021 will be subject to the 2020 cheque pricing of R55, the bank said.

“To continue to support social distancing through wider access to ATMs, Standard Bank has removed the ATM cash withdrawal Saswitch fee charged to its customers who withdraw cash using ATMs belonging to other banks. This means that its customers can use any ATM near to them and only pay the standard ATM banking fee, which has been reduced to R10 per R1,000.”

The bank said that customers will also be able to access value-added services, like airtime and data, more frequently and affordably.

Notably, the bank said it will be launching a new hybrid savings account with zero monthly fees, free ATM cash deposits and interest on positive balances, to compete with several other ‘zero fee’ accounts launched in the market in recent years.

These are the changes to the monthly fee accounts, including links to the fee respective schedules:

The fees listed below are all calculated on a pay-as-you-transact basis, after ‘free’ limits have been reached, and exclude bundles options and the rebates.

Standard Bank offers rebates on its Elite and Prestige accounts with a positive cash balance for a full calendar month. This ranges from a minimum of R86 for a balance of R10,000, to R424 for a R100,000 balance.

Entry level accounts

As with most of Standard Bank’s accounts, monthly fees have been frozen for 2021 in the entry-level category, so the Access Account has the same cost (R5.85). MyMo accounts opened before 31 December will have zero monthly fee for a year – but any new accounts created in 2021 will carry the R4.95 account fee.

Withdrawal fees have been consolidated between accounts, with both MyMo and Access now charging a fixed fee per R1,000 or part thereof withdrawn.

The consolidation makes it far cheaper for entry-level bankers on a pay-as-you-transact plan to access their money through whichever ATMs are available, but will result in slightly higher fees for anyone withdrawing lower values (under R400).

Various bundled options are available across both entry-level accounts, from a limited Access bundle at R33 per month, to a R110 MyMo Plus bundle which gives almost unlimited access to most transactions.

* First R1,500 is free

Full service accounts

In Standard Bank’s full service accounts, monthly fees have been frozen in all but one account, with fee structures for basic transactions following the same consolidation seen across entry-level accounts.

The gold-level Elite account will be R3.00 more expensive per month, with fees now at R110. Prestige banking, Private banking and the top-tier Signature account all have the same monthly fees as 2020.

Withdrawal fees follow the fixed fee per R1,000 model, with a similar structure now also applying to other ATM withdrawals. Deposits have also changed, while debit order fees have been reduced significantly.

These changes are in effect in both the Elite (gold) and Prestige (platinum) accounts, while the upper-tier Private and Signature accounts have most of these fees bundled in, with a much higher monthly account fee as a result.

* First R1,500 is free

The pricing schedule for Standard Bank’s mid-tier account, Elite Banking, is embedded below.

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