Debit or prepaid: the label that decides which fees you are reading
A debit card spends money you already hold in a bank account, so the account's charges decide what a purchase or a withdrawal really costs. A prepaid card spends a balance you load in advance, so what matters is how that balance gets there and what the loading costs. Most brands in this group are the first kind: ABANCA, ABA Bank, 1st National Bank Saint Lucia, ACB Grenada Bank, Absa Seychelles, ABN AMRO NL Zakelijk and ActivoBank all issue debit cards. A smaller set is prepaid: Absa Kenya Multi-Currency Prepaid Card, Access Bank Zambia Premium Elite, Advcash (Advanced Cash) Card and AFRIKARD.
That single label tells you which tariff sheet to read, so settle it before you compare anything else. Our Debit cards and Prepaid cards rankings are split the same way, which makes them a good place to narrow your shortlist before you start reading fees.
The cash charge, and the two allowances that can be compared directly
The cash machine is the clearest everyday cost, and it is also where this group is thinnest on evidence. Two brands publish an allowance you can read straight off their tariff. 1st National Bank Saint Lucia sets XCD 0 for withdrawals on its debit card, and ACB Grenada Bank sets XCD 0 for withdrawals on its debit card. Both are the same kind of promise: a set amount in their own currency rather than a rate you have to work out yourself.
For ABANCA, ABA Bank, 2gether and the rest, no cash allowance sits alongside the card details we hold. Treat that as an open question, not as a free promise. Ask each provider for the full tariff, and ask what the charge becomes once any free allowance is used up. The 1st National Bank Saint Lucia and ACB Grenada Bank write-ups show how each of those cards is described in full, which is the level of detail worth asking everyone else for.
Network: where the card will actually work
The network decides acceptance, and it is a choice rather than a detail. Visa sits behind 1st National Bank Saint Lucia, ABA Bank, ABANCA, ACB Grenada Bank and Absa Kenya Multi-Currency Prepaid Card, so a good share of this group runs on the same rails. 2gether runs on Mastercard instead, and that difference can matter at the till or in an ATM abroad.
For ABN AMRO NL Zakelijk, Absa Seychelles, Access Bank Zambia Premium Elite, ActivoBank, Advcash (Advanced Cash) Card and AFRIKARD, the network is not stated in what we hold. Put it on the question list rather than the known list. The Debit cards ranking is worth a pass here, because a network you cannot name is a limit you cannot price.
Support: the difference between a chat window and a phone line
Everyday card use is mostly support use: a declined payment, a card that stops working, a query about a charge. Channel breadth is the clearest split in this group. ABANCA lists the widest set, with email, chat, phone, a help centre and a community. Access Bank Zambia Premium Elite lists phone, email and a help centre. ABA Bank lists email and phone. 2gether offers a help centre, email and chat, with no phone line stated. AFRIKARD offers email, chat and a help centre.
The thin end of the list matters just as much. ActivoBank lists phone alone, and Advcash (Advanced Cash) Card lists a help centre alone, so a problem has a single way in. If you would rather ring than type, that is a real commitment. For a prepaid card the question carries more weight, because a blocked top-up can leave a card with nothing to spend, so read 2gether and ABA Bank for how written-first support is described.
A worked comparison, card by card
Put the pieces together in the same order every time. 1st National Bank Saint Lucia: a Visa debit card, cash allowance of XCD 0, support by email and phone. ACB Grenada Bank: also a Visa debit card, also XCD 0, with email, phone and a help centre, so one extra channel and otherwise the same shape. Absa Kenya Multi-Currency Prepaid Card: a Visa prepaid card, so the network matches both cards above while the money sits on the card rather than in an account, which means the fee that matters is a different fee entirely.
Run the same questions over your own shortlist: debit or prepaid, what the cash machine costs, which network, and which support channels sit behind it. Where a provider leaves a gap, the ABN AMRO NL Zakelijk listing shows how a debit card with chat, phone, a help centre and a community behind it reads once every line is filled in.
Questions worth asking before you move your money
The evidence here settles the shape of each card but leaves several money questions open, and those are the ones a provider can answer properly. Ask for the cash charge in writing, including what applies once any free allowance is used up and which ATM operator is billed. For a prepaid card, ask what loading the balance costs and what happens to a refund or a declined payment.
For a debit card, ask what a payment does when the account balance is short, and how long a card that has been blocked takes to be replaced, since that is where day to day spending actually stops. Ask either kind of provider how a disputed charge is handled and how long you have to raise it. Answers to those questions usually matter more to your spending than another card in the network group.