Absa clients with a Silver current account will pay between nine percent less and 17 percent more in fees when the bank implements its annual fee changes in April.
( Click here for a table showing a breakdown of what Absa FlexiSave and ActiveSave accountholders will pay to transact from April 1, 2006.)
An analysis by Personal Finance shows that the highest increase for Silver current accountholders will be to replace an ATM card. The charge will increase by 16.67 percent from R30 to R35.
The largest decrease, of 9.09 percent, will be from R110 to R100 for a returned stop order. This fee is levied when you do not have sufficient funds in your account to cover a stop order deduction.
Ultimately, how much more or less you will pay will depend on which transactions you typically perform in a month and the amounts involved in those transactions.
Louis von Zeuner, the executive director of retail banking at Absa, says the average increase for individual accountholders and small business accountholders will be between 2.5 and 3.5 percent.
"Our strategy has been not to implement increases of more than inflation, particularly for small business and individual clients," he says.
Monthly service fee
The minimum monthly service fee for Silver current accountholders will remain R30. This fee is charged only if the sum of all your fees levied on the cheques you issue is less than R30 a month.
Cash withdrawals
The cost of cash withdrawals - either from a cashier inside a bank or from an ATM - is based on a sliding scale. This means that the amount of the increase, if any, will depend on the amount that you withdraw.
The new fee formula for withdrawing cash from a Silver current account using an Absa ATM will be R3 (currently it is R2.90) for the first R100 plus R0.90 for every R100 thereafter. This means the fees for withdrawing cash will rise by 1.54 percent for an amount of R500, by 0.91 percent for an amount of R1 000, and by 0.65 percent for R1 500.
Von Zeuner says 60 percent of mass market ATM cash withdrawals are for amounts under R400. The fee for withdrawing R100 will decrease by 3.57 percent.
The fee for withdrawing cash from a non-Absa ATM will also rise. For withdrawing R500, the fee will go up by 3.28 percent from R12.20 to R12.60.
Penalty fees
Even though Absa will reduce its fee for returned debit orders by 9.09 percent - as is the case with stop orders - it will cost you R100 for every debit order that the bank tries to put through your Silver current account and is rejected because you have insufficient funds in your account.
Von Zeuner says the bank's strategy over the past few years has been to reduce the cost of penalty fees to its clients. Over the last two years, penalty fees have been reduced by 38 percent. One of the biggest challenges facing the bank is to simplify bank charges for its clients, he says.
How to make banking cheaper
- Use an ATM to deposit or withdraw cash. For example, it will cost you R24.10 to withdraw R1 000 over the counter at Absa, while drawing the same amount from an Absa ATM will cost you R11.10.
- Use your debit card to pay for items or services. For example, if you draw R1 000 from an Absa ATM, it will cost you R11.10, while a R1 000 debit card purchase will cost R7.32.
- Use debit orders to make regular payments. If you pay accounts to a company that also banks with Absa, the bank will pass the savings on to you. For example, if you have a Silver cheque account and pay your Telkom account (Telkom banks with Absa) via a debit order, the fee will be R4.75 regardless of the amount you pay. But if a company that does not bank with Absa debits your account for R1 000, you will pay R16.19.