BusinessTech looks at the premium market accounts of South Africa’s four full service retail banks – Standard Bank, FNB, Absa, and Nedbank – calculating each monthly cost based on a set number of transactions.

The transactions used are those outlined by Solidarity’s Research Institute in its annual banking charges report. While the group has not published a new report for 2018, the transaction profiles have remained the same in each iteration.

According to Solidarity, the profiles are based on guidelines consistent with fee-saving guidelines published by the banks – promoting digital channels and reducing physical interaction with the banks as much as possible.

The banking profiles are split into low-income groups (12-17 transactions), middle income groups (25 transactions) and higher income groups (30 transactions).

While these premium accounts are targeted at the higher-income groups, the comparison below takes into account the costs for all profiles.

What is apparent in the numbers is that premium accounts are meant for banking clients that are heavier users in terms of transactions. In fact, in low transaction category, where pay-as-you-transact accounts are available, the individual fees often work out cheaper than the bundle options.

However, when you start hitting 20-plus transactions a month, the bundles start to make clear sense.

Absa

Absa’s Premium Banking has the lowest bundle pricing among the full service banks – while its pay-as-you-transact prices can work out to be the most expensive when dealing with a large number of transactions.

The PAYT option has a fee attached to almost every transaction, which means the bills can add up rather quickly. With the bundle, however, many of the individual fees fall away – leaving only the third-party SMS notifications as the extra fees.

The group’s Premium Bundle gives clients 7 free withdrawals at Absa ATMs (compared to 5 in the Gold Bundle) and will halve the monthly fee, if a balance of R50,000 is maintained (making it R85.24 per month).

Nedbank

Nedbank’s Savvy Bundle is probably the simplest of the retail banks, carrying a flat R192.00 a month fee, with most of the typical transactions free, without limit.

For example, while other banks put limits on withdrawals (only a certain number of free withdrawals, or up to a certain limit), Nedbank Savvy Bundle clients have all of them for free (at Nedbank ATMs).

Standard Bank

Standard Bank has three banking options – a bundle, pay-as-you-transact, and a rebate option.

As with the other banks that offer it, the PAYT option works out cheaper than the bundle pricing at lower transaction profiles, but can stack up quickly at higher levels.

The bank’s notification system is also different to other banks, not charging for notifications unless a transaction is under R100. A transaction under R100 incurs a monthly subscription fee of R2.52. The breakdown below assumes this fee is applicable.

The group’s rebate option works on PAYT fees, but offers a rebate depending on the positive cash balance at the end of the month. The rebates are between R85.75 (balance of R10,000-R19,999) and R423.68 (balance of R100,000+).

It’s also worth noting that Standard Bank Prestige also charges an additional R13.37 per month to hold a cheque card instead of a debit card.

FNB

FNB’s has three Premier account options – pay as you use, Unlimited and Bundled. The price difference between the Bundled and Unlimited options is minor (a R10 per month difference in the fee). The Bundled option is for the entire suite of Premier products (cheque and credit), with the Unlimited applying to the cheque account.

The pricing remains similar across both options, but the Bundled package increases the withdrawal and deposit limits to R9,000 from R7,000 (for the Unlimited option).

FNB Premier also gives clients the chance to waive the monthly fees entirely, if a balance of R50,000 is maintained – this has to be at all times, throughout the month.

On a pay-as-you-use basis, FNB’s individual charges work out the cheapest at low transaction levels, thanks to the lower monthly account costs.

The charges used are as reported by the banks in their fee schedules, which you can find here: Absa | FNB | Nedbank | Standard Bank

Read: South Africa’s ‘gold’ bank accounts compared