9 Best South African Savings Accounts That Pay The Highest Interest Rates 2022


Looking for the best bank to keep your money? With so many banks in South Africa that offer multiple savings accounts each, it can be extremely confusing.

I know because I’m in the process of finding the best savings bank account myself. I was astounded by the lack of information online so I thought I better record my research.

To make life a bit easier for you, below you’ll find a breakdown of the best interest rates on the different savings accounts I came across within South Africa. Hope this helps!

Bank:Account Type:Interest Rate:Minimum Deposit:View Options:
African BankFixed deposit account5.5% – 10.01%VIEW
African BankMyWorld Savings Account4.25%R0VIEW
Tyme BankGoalSave4% – 6%R10,000VIEW
CapitecFixed Savings Account4.59 % – 7.76% R10,000VIEW
First National BankSavings Account3% – 7.8%R0VIEW
NedbankSavings Account2.75% – 7.51%R0VIEW
CapitecGlobal One Savings Account2.25%R0VIEW
Standard BankSavings Account1.35% – 6.42%R0VIEW
ABSA BankSavings Account0% – 6.75%R0VIEW
9 Best South African Savings Accounts That Pay The Highest Interest Rates.

BONUS CONTENT: Looking for an investment in South Africa with the best return? View my 10 best investments in South Africa for beginners here.

01. African Bank Fixed Deposit Account (5.5% to 10.01%)

African Bank fixed deposit account tops the list! Their interest rates start out at 5.5% interest for the first 3 months and can be increased to as much as 10.1% interest the longer you hold your money, which is outstanding.

Here’s a full break down:

Term:Annual Fixed Rate Interest:
3 Months5.50%
6 Months6.00%
12 Months7.00%
24 Months7.75%
60 Months10.01%
African Bank Fixed Deposit Account interest rate for period money is held in account.

What’s really great about this savings account is that it’s fixed rate, which means as long as you keep your money in the account, the interest rate is guaranteed for the investment period selected. The interest won’t fluctuate.

[View Bank]

SIDE NOTE: As discussed in this quora post, only the best investors in the world achieve a 10% return on their investment in the long term. So finding a bank that offers 10% interest on your money is truly special.

02. African Bank MyWorld Savings Account (4.25%)

MyWorld is an everyday savings account that offers some of the best interest rates at 4.25%. This might not sound like much however you don’t even need to have a minimum deposit in your account. As long as you have some money in your account you’ll be entitled to the 4.25% per annum.

To put this into perspective, for a similar ABSA savings account you’ll only get around 1.55% per annum.

[View Bank]

03. Tyme Bank GoalSave (4% to 6%)

The GoalSave account isn’t exactly your typical everyday savings account, however, if you want to deposit your money and hold it in the account it might be a good option.

They offer the best interest rate at 4% interest per annum from 1-30 days after the money has been added to your account. This increases the longer you hold your money to us much as 6% interest.

Here’s a table with more details:

Days after money is added:Annual interest rate:
1 – 304%
31 – 905%
91+6%
Tyme bank GoalSave interest rate for period money is held in account.

They do offer a bonus of 7% if you give the bank 10 days notice before withdrawing your investment after the 90 day period. As far as I understand you’ll only receive 7% on that 10 day notice period, which is a bit of a disappointment.

Unfortunately, your maximum initial investment is capped at R10,000 however you can own a maximum of 10 of these accounts, which means you can invest a maximum of R100,000 in total.

[View Bank]

04. Capitec Global One account Fixed Term Savings Plan (4.59 % to 7.76%)

The fixed-term savings account offers you the opportunity to earn an interest rate of up to 7.76%. Keep in mind that you’ll need to make a minimum deposit of R10,000 and the minimum period you can keep your money in the account for is 6 months. So it’s not exactly your everyday savings account.

Here’s a table that will explain the effective interest rate you can earn in more details:

Term (Months)R10 000 – R24 999R25 000 – R99 999R100 000+
64.59%4.85%5.12%
7 – 94.85%5.12%5.22%
10 – 125.12%5.22%5.33%
13 – 185.38%5.54%5.64%
19 – 245.43%6.01%6.17%
25 – 365.85%6.38%6.43%
37 – 486.17%6.49%6.59%
49 – 607.23%7.66%7.76%
Capitec Global One account Fixed Term Savings Plan interest rate for period money is held, and the amount of money deposited.

NOTE: During your research, you might come across “Nominal” or “Effective” interest rates. Nominal interest rates don’t take into account the compounding effect of the interest you earn.

On the other hand, effective interest rates do consider the compounding effect. This makes the “Effective interest rate” a lot more accurate because it shows the total interest you’ll earn for a given period.

[View Bank]

05. FNB (3% to 7.8%)

FNB has a high initial interest rate of 3.05% on a low deposit, and max out at around 7.8% interest rate for investments of R10,000 plus, which isn’t bad considering what other banks have been offering. The amount of interest you earn obviously depends on the account you choose, so let’s quickly run through the options you have.

Account:Minimum Deposit:Interest Rate:
Any FNB Savings Account03.05%
FNB 7 Day NoticeR20,0003.40%
FNB Flexi Fixed DepositR5,0003.60%
FNB 32 day Flexi NoticeR5,0003.70%
FNB Money MaximiserR100,0004.60%
Restart Fixed DepositR10,0006.20%
Fixed DepositR10,0007.80%
FNB bank savings account interest rates.

[View Bank]

06. Nedbank (2.75% to 7.51%)

Nedbank offers a wide range of flexible and fixed-term savings accounts that ranges their interest rates depending on how much money you have, and how long you keep it in your account.

That said there’s way too much information to fit it all in this article. You can either view it all on the Nedbank’s website here or if you want a snapshot I’ll summarize some of the highest interest yielding savings accounts in the table below.

Account:Minimum Deposit:Nominal Interest Rate:
Nedbank MyPocket Savings Account03.00%
Nedbank 32-day Notice Account02.75% to 4.3%
Nedbank Tax-Free Fixed Deposit AccountR1,0003.8% to 4.3%
Nedbank Money TraderR50,0003.5%
Electronic Fixed Deposit (For 55 years of age)R1,0003.5% to 7.15%
Electronic Fixed Deposit (For below 55 years of age)R5,0003.25% to 7.04%
Electronic OptimumPlusR1,0003.55% to 7.51%
Nedbank savings account interest rates.

[View Bank]

07. Capitec Global One Savings Account (2.25%)

This account is more of your every day account that doesn’t require an initial deposit. The biggest drawback is, you can only earn 2.25% interest per annum if you have less than R100,000 in the account.

And if you have more than R100,000 things don’t get much better. Your interest rate crawls up from 2.25% to only 2.5%. I mean why did they even bother?

[View Bank]

08. Standard Bank (1.35% to 6.42%)

Standard bank also has a big variety of savings account options. They offer interest rates from as low as 1.35% to as high as 6.42% depending on the account you choose, how much you deposit, and how quickly you would like access to that money.

They even have 4 “accessibility” options so make sure you check out the bank’s website here to get a detailed description of each. Or, if you prefer a summary I’ll also lay out a summary in the table below.

Account:Minimum Deposit:Interest Rate:
PureSave savings accountR501.35%
Society Scheme savings accountR1002.15%
MarketLink investment accountR1,0002.50%
ContractSave savings accountR1003.00%
MoneyMarket Call investment accountR20,0003.30%
Tax-Free Call investment accountR2503.50%
MoneyMarket Select investment accountR250,0004.20%
Notice Deposit investment accountR2504.25%
Shari’ah fixed deposit investment accountR2,0006.20%
Flexi Advantage investment accountR1,0006.40%
Fixed Deposit investment accountR1,0006.42%
Standard bank savings account interest rates.

[View Bank]

09. ABSA Bank (0% to 6.75%)

Absa interest rates for savings account ranges from 0.00% to 0.45% which is extremely poop. I highly suggest you rather look into their dynamic fixed deposit account if you do decide to go with ABSA because it’s a lot higher.

Dynamic fixed deposit accounts offer interest rates between 3.75% to 6.75% which is a lot higher than your everyday savings account.

If you would like to view more options with in-depth details on ABSA’s website, then visit this link. I’ll also include a summary in the table below of options that stood out to me if you would like more of a summary of what ABSA has to offer.

Account:Minimum Deposit:Interest Rate:
ABSA instant access every day accounts00% to 1.55%
ABSA savings plans01.05% to 2.55%
ABSA 12 months fixed deposit accounts03.8% to 4.3%
ABSA dynamic fixed deposit accountR1,0003.75% to 6.75%
ABSA Bank savings account interest rates.

[View Bank]

Final Thoughts

Interest rates change all the time so please don’t be surprised if the information I mentioned in this article doesn’t exactly match up to what you’re seeing. That said, this article should give you a general idea of which banks offer the best savings accounts in South Africa.

I hope this information saves you a few hours of research. I know I wish I had it when I was researching my savings account.

YOUR TURN: Did we miss a bank? Or did we miss any info? Please let us know in the comments below so we can start learning from each other.

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21 thoughts on “9 Best South African Savings Accounts That Pay The Highest Interest Rates 2022

  1. Thank you
    Africa an Bank had financial issues a few years ago, is it correct that a ZA bank going under has client protect is the Reserve Bank
    Cause 10% return at African Bank is really good if there’s no risk

  2. Great article Thanks.

    Can one really trust that ones Interest and Capital will be Guarenteed for the term investment with African bank? Its been in trouble before and nowhere do I find the wording that Capital at end of term is Guarenteed? Ive written to them re this but perhaops Ive missed something and you can help please?

    Can you email me your views pse.

    1. Pleasure Peter! And valid point. I don’t have enough expertise in the banking industry to answer that question. However, what I can say is that for 2020, customer survey data by Consulta showed that African Bank is the second-best bank according to customers in South Africa. So hopefully that counts for something with regards to the legitimacy of the investment promise?!

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