These banks charge the highest extra fees for international streaming and gaming subscriptions

As shown in the table above, Standard Bank is the most expensive of the banks that charge a percentage-based fee.

While the individual fees might not seem like much, they can add up over time, especially when customers use multiple services.

There are numerous popular platforms that are subject to these fees, including:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon Prime Video
• Apple Music
• Apple TV+
• Britbox
• Disney+
• Google Cloud
• Microsoft 365
• Microsoft Game Pass
• Microsoft OneDrive
• Netflix
• PlayStation Plus
• Spotify
• YouTube Premium

The table below shows how much a Standard Bank customer will pay in extra fees every month and over a year when using several popular subscription services.

When using the collection of services above, the only bank that charges fixed fees based on certain brackets of spending value — Capitec — will also be more affordable.

However, Capitec’s R2 for transactions with values between R0–R100 is particularly expensive for those who primarily make international payments in this bracket.

For example, the R2 charge in Capitec’s international payments works out to 4.1% of the Netflix Mobile subscription of R49.

Standard Bank’s fee on that same subscription will work out to R1.35, 32.5% cheaper than Capitec.

The R2 fee would also make up 6.9% of the R29 subscription of the Microsoft Basic account.

Capitec’s fee could theoretically go as high as 200% of the transaction’s value, but only if that transaction’s value was the minimum of R0.01.

The table below illustrates how Capitec’s international payment fee can either be more or less expensive than Standard Bank for cheaper subscriptions, depending on the value of the transaction.