Discovery Bank vs FNB

[Spreadsheet Ranger]

I currently bank with Capitec and I am happy. I mean the bank works it allows me to send and receive money and I earn enough interest to cover the admin fee and most of the transaction fees. That said Capitec costs a lot more than R5 per month as the brochure suggests. At the end of the month I pay roughly R60 in transaction fees + R5 admin fee + R50 for the credit card facility so I am paying on average R115 per month in fees to bank with Capitec.

 

In a world where alternatives exist this is too much for what Capitec offers so I am now in the market for a new bank account.

 

I have to say, I also have a Tymebank bank account, but they don't do online payments or credit yet so not a fully fledged bank in my view.

 

Absa and Standard Bank are expensive in relation to what they offer and they dead last in perks so they are out. Nedbank, do they still exist?

 

This leaves me with FNB + Ebucks or Discovery Bank + Vitality Money.

 

I have the following expenses in a month:

• Rent – I pay (EFT) that to Rawson each month.
• Electricity - I pay (EFT) that to PEC Metering each month.
• Medical – I  pay (EFT) that to Genesis each month. (Not impossible to switch to Discovery if there is a major saving/benefit)
• Gym – That is a debit order on my account.
• Telkom – That is a debit order on my account.
• Petrol - I spend around R500 in month on petrol which I pay for with my Capitec card.
• Airtime - My phone is prepaid so I buy airtime with my bank card or EFT depending where I buy airtime from.
• I then pay (EFT) money to Nedbank for the investment club.
• I have a paypal order each month for the forum which goes off my card (linked to paypal).
• I have a debit order from Netflix each month.
• I do about R3000 in shopping at pick n pay, but can move to checkers for ebucks if needed.
• The rest of my money I pay (EFT) to EasyEquities or leave in my bank account to earn interest.

 

Any idea which bank FNB or Discovery Bank will offer me the best perks here. I am interested in the perks, because if I am going to give the bank money I expect something back otherwise I would have sticked to Capitec.

 

[Bandit]

I have both although I may not have given Discovery a fair chance with regards to rewards so far. But that doesn't matter because their service just isn't even close to FNB. I'm sure they'll get there in time but so far Discovery Bank has been a massive waste of time for me.

 

It's funny because people used to say eBucks is complicated - wait until you try Vitality Money. It's all relative to spend etc. but I'm on level 5 eBucks and get about R500 worth of it back every month without doing anything special. I can more than likely maximise it and get exponentially more every month but I don't go chasing rewards for the sake of good financial habits (overdrafts, revolving loans etc).

 

Anyway, I can tell you this:

• If you don't fully commit to Discovery then don't bother.
• FNB's app and integrated services are light year's ahead.
• FNB's support is better
• I'm more than likely cancelling my Discovery card as soon as I can figure out how...

So my vote is FNB + Tyme over any other banks in South Africa.

[Spreadsheet Ranger]

That confirms my suspicion regarding Discovery Bank.

 

I hope FNB contacts you with a good client bonus, because you just convinced me to open a FNB account.  

[Bandit]

I'll settle for a better interest rate on my car or home loan...