# Bank Account - Temporary Resident in South Africa



## kaushikpanse (Aug 18, 2012)

Hi There,

I have recently moved to South Africa on a long term Work Visa. I have gone through the Exchange control Regulations and I see that I am allowed to conduct a Resident Bank account in South Africa and shall be allowed to Bank just like a South African Resident till my work visa expires.

I am currently trying to research on what bank should I select to open a current account. 

Here are my Requirements 

- Internet Transfer of Funds to My Home Country with good exchange Rate
- International Debit Orders - I would like to set debit orders on my current account here in SA to pay my families utilities bills back home.
- Online Trading Facility
- Credit Card with good credit limit

Also I would like to buy a car and buy a good insurance for it.

I will really appreciate if I can get guidance in terms of the above and would also like to hear any of your experiences in dealing with the Banks for opening a bank account and for purchasing Vehicle asset Insurance. 

Thanks !


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## Frappuccionfan (Aug 9, 2012)

kaushikpanse said:


> Hi There,
> 
> I have recently moved to South Africa on a long term Work Visa. I have gone through the Exchange control Regulations and I see that I am allowed to conduct a Resident Bank account in South Africa and shall be allowed to Bank just like a South African Resident till my work visa expires.
> 
> ...


Hi!
I can't say anything about other banks, but we are satisfied with FNB, but I've to admit it's a premier account. We've only transferred money to South Africa and they call you every time to confirm that you are satisfied with the exchange rate. We've a leased car, so we don't have to bother about the insurance. Good luck!


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## gushungo (Sep 3, 2012)

kaushikpanse said:


> Hi There,
> 
> I have recently moved to South Africa on a long term Work Visa. I have gone through the Exchange control Regulations and I see that I am allowed to conduct a Resident Bank account in South Africa and shall be allowed to Bank just like a South African Resident till my work visa expires.
> 
> ...


Good luck with buying a car if you are looking for finance. I'm here initially on a 2 year work permit and was basically laughed at by banks and dealerships when I enquired about finance. So I have to buy a cheap banger for cash or continue to hire a car using my German credit card. Thankfully car hire here is cheap compared to most countries.

And good luck too with getting a credit card. I have been refused by the bank I am with. Apparently I'm too much of a credit risk even though I earn enough to have private banking and I only need a low credit limit (say R10k). I need the card because only one South African hire car company will accept debit cards, the rest all require credit cards.

International debit orders sounds an expensive option. Can't you make one monthly payment to your Indian account and then disburse the funds from there?

Online trading of what? South African shares? South African bonds? American shares? British commodities futures? Unless you're specifically looking at trading South African instruments you're probably better off with an international broker and keeping your funds in USD or CHF or EUR or GBP. You might also want to enquire of tax specialists whether using an international broker and trading on exchanges outside South Africa means that you can avoid paying SA income tax if you don't bring the funds into SA - particularly this year if you have not been here for the entire tax year.


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## adambt (Sep 9, 2012)

I can't comment on your individual requirements but I've been using Absa since we arrived 8 months ago and haven't had any problems. Banking generally seems expensive here though when compared with my own home in the UK. Best to check out the websites of each bank for their facilities and charges. 
The big three are Absa, FNB and Standard bank.


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## gunther13 (Sep 13, 2012)

FNB without a doubt!, i am currently banking with standard bank, but will move to fnb pretty soon, you get so much back from them!


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## rravikumar (Nov 4, 2011)

Hi,

There is no doubt FNB gives gud rates. But to transfer to India, you can open account in SBI, SA, which provides good exchange rate compare to other banks. One more thing, using SBI money will be credited into Indian account within next day but FNB will take more than 2 days. Also note that SBI account maintenance fee is very cheap around 10 Rand only. Having account in both FNB and SBI, mainly I am using SBI to transfer money to India and FNB for other purpose.

Cheers
Ravi


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