I’m with FNB and my card (normal cheque card) worked fine throughout my 4 years + in Asia.

Also slightly off topic, this morning I noticed that FNB got a built in form that issues bank letters and stuff, specifically for visa applications - in the past I physically had to go to the bank to get that issued.

Hi, so you are right, Capitec does work the same as you have said @theunis .
So I’ve opened an account.

However I have just come across this which looks amazing!

Here is a thread on this forum discussing the service.

Hi, here for an update.
I’m leaving in a month so I neglected this till now.

I’m with FNB currently, they charge 2.75% of the amount on swipes (thats the currency conversion fee)
For ATM withdrawals its 2.75% plus R50.
If you go into an actual bank to withdraw money its 2.75% plus R50 AND R 1.65 per R 100.

I’m upgrading from a gold to a platinum/premier account because its not that much more expensive and I get access to the 24/7 Platinum Call Centre where I can get issues sorted out should I have any.

I ruled out FNB’s global account because these are the currencies supported:
US Dollar , Euro, GBP, Australian Dollar, Indian Rupee, Chinese Renminbi

If you are in a country that does not use those currencies (i.e. Serbia where I will mostly be based) then the fees become much higher and it makes it not worth it.

I’m going to Capitec tomorrow to check out their global one account to see if its still the same. It seems so from the website so its probably the way to go.

Just came across this article this morning which may also help you:

I can basically just confirm what @theunis says…

When I left SA about 3 years ago I did research and at that time Capitec was the cheapest. Their actual transaction fee was around R40 for ATM withdrawals (though I see theunis says it is now R45), but the key was that they did not charge any currency conversion fees.

Some of the other banks had a little lower transaction fee, but all of them charged a 5% currency conversion fee on top which made the transaction very expensive.

For the past year I have been using a local bank in Thailand as I have sort-of settled down here for a while, but before that I used the Capitec bank card all the time and never had a any problems. I had to use it again about 3 months ago and all still worked fine.

Just make sure you tell them that you will be using it overseas for an extended period, so they don’t block the transactions as suspicious.

I would suggest though that you have a backup card from another bank just in case…

Edit: BTW, if you are going to be in Europe exclusively you can perhaps look into FNB’s Global Account which is a foreign currency based account (https://www.fnb.co.za/travel-products/global-acc.html). That should protect you a but against the Rand fluctuating, and also since it is already in the foreign currency there should be no currency conversion fees. Not 100% sure about the details though, so just enquire at your bank.

Heya. I’ve been travelling through the balkans for the past 3 months. Back home I did quite a bit of research on this, and overall I think capitec has the lowest fees - R45 for an international cash withdrawal and free swipes, which I haven’t had any trouble with. For both of these, at times the exchange rate was the rate you get when you google it, at the worst it was around 0.5% above that - Not sure if this is simply due to the rand’s recent volatility though.

I wanted to look into https://number26.de/ further, but didn’t get around to it. Not sure if it’s possible to get an account with them if you’re not a german resident (I’ve read some conflicting information around the web). The legal issues surrounding keeping money in a foreign bank account is not very clear to me though - SA is quite strict about forex. Capitec did warn me my account might get frozen if I use it overseas for longer than 3 months - couldn’t explain why though.

Whereabouts will you be travelling to?

Cape Town Safety Map.png1784×1470 2.17 MB

Here’s a map I modified for a friend who was planning to do a medical residency there. We lived there for two years and know most of the neighborhoods well. Crime in Cape Town is mostly opportunistic, so don’t walk around with a camera around your neck, leave stuff in the car or your iPhone on a cafe table, etc.

If you want to message me a few possible locations I’d be happy to a let you know if it’s safe. Some areas on the map aren’t exactly unsafe - such as the city bowl, downtown can be somewhat unsafe at night, but you’d probably be a few stories up from street level and that’s perfectly safe. Oranjezicht, Vreadehoek, and Tamboerskloof are also OK in the city bowl.

Greenpoint is also a great location. Close to the sea, in the city bowl as it gets called - basically walking distance to all the good stuff and plenty AirBnB’s around there.

Have fun, its a great place. If you hire a car make sure not to leave valuables in it and be sure to put valuable things in the in the trunk when driving.

My wife and I are in Cape Town right now and we’ve stayed in two different neighborhoods: Woodstock and Tamboerskloof. Of the two I would say Tamboerskloof feels safer to walk around at night. It is definitely a wealthier neighborhood. At the same time, a previous guest at the AirBnb we are staying at in Tamboerskloof had the flat broken into and their laptop stolen, so one should be vigilant and security-minded anywhere. Our Woodstock flat was in a somewhat dodgy area but was a fantastic place to stay.

Woodstock is a gentrifying neighborhood with a lot of cool stuff (coworking, cafes, shops), but most of that is closed at night. If you want to be a little further out of the city, I think the next neighborhood out from Woodstock, Observatory (Obs or Obz for short) had a less sketchy feel and a number of restaurants, cafes and bars.

If you want to be closer to the beach (maybe not in August), Sea Point seemed alright the couple of times we’ve visited.

Hi Tyler,

I have just been back from 2 months nomading in Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. And I have resided 1.5 years in South Africa so I can share you some tips.

As you may expect it, the internet is not great there. In Mozambique, you can buy a SIM card from Vodacom and get 2GB for no more than USD10, cheap, and the connection in 3G is good. I had more ease working on 3G than on most Wi-Fi hotspots.

You can do the same in Tanzania with Airtel, but the quality of the network is quite poor.

I don’t know about the 3G in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, but I found it hard to find Wi-Fi in most hotels.

In South Africa the connection is good and most places have Wi-Fi (at least compared to the countries above), the 3G is good but expensive.

I have been 2 weeks in Zanzibar and let me save you some troubles if you decide to travel around the island: withdraw as much money as you need in Stone Town, the capital city, because then there is no ATM on the whole island!

This region is fantastic, relatively unexplored as compared to many typical nomad Asian cities. The 2 main downsides of traveling there is the difficulty to find proper internet connection, and the relatively high prices of everything. Mozambique and Zanzibar are relatively expensive (especially the North of Mozambique, region of Pemba). Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana are surprisingly expensive. South Africa is cheaper and probably more suited to nomading.

Don’t hesitate if you need more info, I’ll be happy to help.

Cheers, enjoy your nomading in this awesome part of the world!

Hi there, not a nomad just a lurker on the forums so don’t really have any nomadic specific tips, but I’m currently in Zambia for a couple of months and have visited some of the countries in the region on earlier occasions.

Eastern and Southern Africa is a fantastic part of the world, so you’re going to have a great time. $50/night should be enough to get some decent accomodation, but you might have to shop around and don’t expect too much. Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana don’t cater to individual travelleres and backpackers the same way many Asian and South American countries do. Hostels are quite rare since the tourist industry caters mostly people on all-inclusive safaris. Don’t know about Mozambique and South Africa though.

In Zambia internet connection is not exactly great, usually it only qualifies as acceptable. If you’re staying in better hotels or lodges you’ll probably be looking at 10 Mbit/s at best. I’d recommend getting a local SIM and just accept the fact that you’ll have to pay for reliable internet. There’s three operators in Zambia: Airtel, MTN and Zamtel. I’m using MTN which is supposedly the best of the bunch. Data packages cost about 200 ZMK for 2GB, 300 for 3GB and 800 for 10GB. Valid for 30 days. Airtel should be avoided since they charge extra for access to WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter. In my experience, Livingstone has better mobile internet speeds than Lusaka, regularly got about 20 Mbit/s in Livingstone while in Lusaka I’m rarely above 2 Mbit/s.
If you’re planning on visiting Lusaka, the best internet is found at The Deli, a great café with good coffee and fantastic food.

A word of warning though, there’s load shedding going on in all of Zambia for the indeterminate future. Appearently the rainy season wasn’t as rainy as it usually is, so water levels are low and power generation cannot keep up with demand. Expect power outages on an irregular basis, lasting for up to 8 hours at a time. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, I’d suggest skipping most of Zambia (except Victoria Falls) and instead consider Namibia, which will be a great contrast to the other countries.

Hi Danielle,

We have a 14-room house full of expats and entrepreneurs in Camps Bay, one of the coolest area in Cape Town, 5 minutes from the Beach

The areas that most expats favor are the City Center / Sea Point / Green Point / Camps Bay / Woodstock / Observatory.

Cheers,

Romain