Student Bank Account Comparisons:

Suddenly you turn 19 and find yourself in the unreal adult world. You receive a letter in the post informing you that you should visit your branch and supply proof that you are either still a student or have completed high school. You must also bring your ID book and proof of residency. If you don't visit the bank your account will be closed.


You head off to the bank and they inform you that you are not longer eligible for a children’s account but that you need to change you account to a Student account as you will be studying next year.

You will now have to pay bank charges similar to an adult account and can get access to a credit card and overdraft facility. Whoa…wait a minute, an overdraft facility? Credit card? You only get pocket money, you have not even entered the workforce yet!

The biggest question is which account you should choose, which bank to deal with and what benefits you get from each.
I decided to compare bank accounts from the 4 major banks for this, the student level this time but I added Capitec bank, the Newbie bank that advertises a higher interest rate and lower charges. The only difference being that the 4 major banks supply cheque accounts while Capitec is a transaction account. Lets do the comparison:

Click here!

I would choose ABSA after all the considerations even though there is not interest. I would open a separate saving account to earn interest and take advantage of no transaction fees as ABSA has the most widely spread ATM’s.


Making use of either the overdraft or credit card is probably not advisable at student level and I would make sure that those services are kept for a later date.