The Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) published its 2023 Banking Charges report, comparing pricing at South Africa’s biggest banks, based on different user profiles in four groups. Two transaction profiles are associated with low-cost or entry-level banking. FNB’s Easy pay-as-you-use account emerged easily as the cheapest account, followed by Absa’s Transact account. However, to qualify for Absa’s Transact account, monthly income must be less than R3,000. The SRI said that Capitec is still the only bank in this category that offers interest on the transaction account, but this is only when a balance of R5 000 is maintained.
