R679 for a bank account?

DISCOVERY: BANK HIKES FEES ON TOP-END ACCOUNT, PLUS EXTRA R4K ANNUAL CARD FEE

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Discovery Bank has upped the fees on its top-end Purple Suite to R679 a month, with an additional R4,000 annual card fee. Last year, the account fee was R640. This includes a R510 account fee, R100 Vitality Money premium, and R69 single credit facility fee.

It says qualifying income on this account is R2.5 million a year, but these requirements are often waived by banks. The Purple Suite product is clearly Discovery Bank's private banking-type offer.

It says each account comes with your own relationship banker, access to a separate servicing channel and its own dedicated Discovery Purple Concierge team. This is directly comparable to offers targeting wealthy customers from other banks.

Included in the account's benefits is a discount of up to 75% on two international business class flight bookings a year - a return flight (or two economy or premium economy ones) - if they are a full Vitality Health member, alongside Vitality Money.

To get this discount, the account holder needs to maintain an average monthly positive balance of at least R250,000.