Bank Zero beats Discovery Bank, TymeBank in 2025 digital banking showdown

Bank Zero offers the most affordable fees of the three prominent digital banks in South Africa, while Discovery Bank’s Gold pay-as-you-transact (PAYT) account is the most expensive, a MyBroadband analysis has revealed.

Digital banks like Bank Zero, TymeBank, and Discovery Bank can offer South Africans an affordable alternative to traditional banking in South Africa.

This offers several benefits, including seamless customer onboarding directly through their respective apps, meaning customers don’t have to visit a physical branch.

MyBroadband compared fees for three prominent digital banks in South Africa — TymeBank, Bank Zero, and Discovery Bank — to determine which is most affordable.

As these banks are soon set to implement price adjustments for 2025, we used their respective fee schedules for 2025 for our comparison.

To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of each digital bank account, we created a hypothetical basket of monthly transactions:

• Monthly account fee
• Two cash deposits (R1,000 each)
• Two point-of-sale (PoS) withdrawals (R1,000 each)
• Five external debit orders
• Three digital payments
• Two prepaid airtime purchases
• Two prepaid electricity purchases (R100 each)
• 20 SMS notifications

Bank Zero had the lowest total basket cost at R43.90 — R14 less than the next-most affordable option, TymeBank.

Discovery Bank was the most expensive by a large margin, at R108.90, which is R65 more expensive than Bank Zero and R51 more than TymeBank.

This was primarily due to three reasons. The first is that Discovery Bank’s Gold PAYT account is the only one of the three to charge a monthly account fee of R30.

It also charges for external debit orders and digital payments, which the others do not. The five external debit orders, three digital payments, and monthly account fee added R57 to the total basket price for Discovery Bank’s Gold PAYT account.

The chart below compares total basket costs for TymeBank, Bank Zero, and Discovery Bank’s Gold PAYT account.

When comparing Bank Zero and TymeBank’s total basket costs, the primary difference is TymeBank’s slightly higher point-of-sale withdrawal, SMS notification, and prepaid recharge fees.

Bank Zero charges R2 per PoS withdrawal, compared to R3 at TymeBank. TymeBank also charges a R0.50 fee per transaction notification sent via SMS, a feature that Bank Zero doesn’t offer.

While Bank Zero doesn’t offer SMS transaction notifications, it provides app and email notifications for free. It should be noted that TymeBank and Discovery Bank also offer free app notifications.

Regarding prepaid recharges, TymeBank charges R0.50 per prepaid airtime and electricity purchase, while Bank Zero doesn’t charge for these transactions.

In comparison, Discovery Bank’s Gold PAYT account charges R2 per PoS withdrawal, R1 per prepaid airtime purchase, and 1% of the transaction value for prepaid electricity purchases, capped at R10.

While Discovery Bank’s Gold PAYT account is the most expensive of those compared, it offers several benefits not provided by Bank Zero and TymeBank.

For example, the Discovery Bank Gold PAYT account fee includes the Vitality Money premium, allowing account holders to benefit from dynamic interest rates, discounts, and Discovery Miles rewards.

Discounts include up to 75% off local and international flights, up to 20% off fuel at Shell and BP petrol stations, and up to 75% off healthy groceries from Checkers and Woolworths.

The tables below compare the banking fees for entry-level accounts from Bank Zero, TymeBank, and Discovery Bank.