I must presume Capitec gets a lot of the banking done at ATMs. Why else? Personally, I prefer email/phone assistance, online and cashless as far as possible. Happy to go into the bank once or twice a year to get anything particularly serious done. The petrol/taxi money and time and hassle/risk to get to the ATM (Assault Targeted Monolith, in SA) and use it, is a hidden fee.
In any case... What good are more ATMs as a selling point? There's just no way I could part from the established, venerable even, bank that I make use of. I like pay X monthly fee, get back 20X in value, I'd say. At least. How do you quantify the value of a banking environment that I've not even managed to explore the full breadth of wealth generating and expense saving services yet?
And listen to this...
Rewards... If my basic, boring, groceries budget was, say, R2000 (I'm not posting my actual numbers), then I could spend R500 (25%) more. And if I did that, then I would get to deposit a shiny R500 into an investment account too. Just like that. I could, with a R2000 groceries budget, for example buy the groceries, and then spend R500 extra on food for a braai. And for my "trouble" grow my investments by R500. Or... I could just buy the R2000 groceries, forego the braai, additionally invest R500 in the normal way (for an equal total of R2500 spent), and then get to invest a shiny R400 more from the rewards. Pasella. So, R900 invested for the price of R500, which will yield returns, forever. It's ludicrously good
I'm investing locally, abroad, in green industry, for dividends, tech companies, property, etc. in this way. Although of course I do put more into the account than what I get from rewards. It yields... many times my monthly bank fees. A few mouse-clicks a month. I'm damned sure I could do it in about 20 low effort mouse-clicks a month. No paperwork. Not any I have to write/type anyway. Except a chirpy email to my tax consultant once or twice a year. The rewards on petrol alone, with a low monthly petrol spend, already essentially makes my banking free. And there's 1% back on every credit card swipe. If I did something crazy like walk into Hyundai and buy an i10 grand on my credit card, then at the end of the month the bank would basically say "Thank you sir. Here's R2250 for shits and giggles."
That's a minor way in which I benefit. As one example, I easily got Prime minus (more than 1 - Again... Not posting my actual numbers) the last time. Loyalty probably had something to do with it. No complaints. And, and, and, and... Even doing the taxes due from any of it is easy thanks to the service I get. All easy. Low admin. No stress. So when I hear people faffing about bank fees this, and some minor rare inconvenience that... Then it just leaves me... puzzled? Plain and simple. Do they understand the concept of VALUE? The value inherent in a well curated and developed bouquet of services and benefits. More than the sum of its parts. All it takes is exploring the options. In my case, Online... With my butt planted in my chair.