Eliminate Banking Fees and Cut Costs

In theory, you shouldn’t have to pay your bank for the privilege of having an account with them. Banks already make money from their customers by earning interest on the money they lend out, and guess who supplies that money? Yep, that’s right, you do!

A great deal of banks are charging their customers thousands of Rands in fees every year and if that isn’t bad enough, managing your money can be challenging, especially when you lead a busy life. Here are 10 ways you can eliminate banking fees and cut costs:

1. Switch your bank account to the cheapest option that meets your needs and helps you reduce your current banking fees. Make sure you are earning as much interest as possible so that you are not paying incorrect banking fees.

2. Take advantage of the free transactions as specified on your chosen pricing option.

3. Arrange for your stop orders and debt orders to be paid at the most convenient time for you, preferably just after your salary is received and make sure you allow a day or two for late salary payments (this is to prevent an additional fee charge).

4. For pay as you transact banking packages, make sure you draw cash less frequently, as you will be charged a set fee every time you make a withdrawal. Maybe try drawing larger amounts of money at a time.

5. Sign up for automatic debit orders in order to pay bills and to prevent missing payments and tarnished credit history.

6. Use ATM’s that are supplied by your bank and are inside of your network area as ATM’s from other banks or that are outside of your network, will charge you a higher amount of money to make cash withdrawals.

7. Don’t leave large balances in your transaction account as it offers no or little interest. Open a saving or investment account using internet banking to earn higher interest on your surplus funds.

8. Avoid using cheques to make or receive payments. Rather use electronic transfers as it is much cheaper.

9. Use your debit or cheque card to make all in store payments. You don’t pay anything more because it is included in your pricing option. This is also safer than carrying cash.

10. Buy airtime at self-service channels, available 24/7 and no service is charged on these transactions.

Manage your banking fees according to your financial needs.