The country experiences the so called difficult times in the economy and we are all advised to cut costs, etc.

About a week or two ago I was surprised to notice a bank, I think it was ABSA, with a full two page advertisement in the Rapport. Today there is another one for ABSA with 2 pages. Standard Bank today has ads in the Rapport totalling 8 full pages. I do not know what they are advertising as I am not interested. Perhaps they pay it off with their credit card over 24 months! I think because of the number of pages they are given a special rate, but is it necessary?

My concern is that all the banks fight to get each others' clients, but the bottom end of the market cannot afford to open up a bank account as the bank fees are just too high. As far as I know it is also not worthwhile to have a savings account for a child, because if you do not have a reasonable amount of money in the account the fees are eating up all the money in the account.