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Maya Fisher-French
Maya Fisher-French

We often complain that we do not have enough money to save, but it is sometimes the hassle of opening a savings account and committing to the minimum investment amounts that is the major hurdle.

This is especially true for the younger generation, which is so focused on work, family and socialising that they neglect to look after their finances.

So, why not sign up for an account or card that saves for you every time you spend?

OLD MUTUAL MONEY ACCOUNT – INVEST UP TO 15% OF EVERY PURCHASE

The Old Mutual Money Account is a transactional account where you automatically select an amount between 5% and 15% of every card purchase to be transferred into a money market unit trust in your name.

For example, if you spend on average R5 000 a month using your debit card and set the savings percentage at 10%, you would automatically save R500 a month.

This amount is invested into the Old Mutual Money Market Unit Trust, which is a low-risk fund that delivered an interest rate of 7.7% last year.

This is an ideal vehicle for short-term savings or emergency savings.

If you are saving up for a specific item, you can transfer the money back into your transactional account when the time comes to purchase the goods and the money is available immediately.

You can also set up an automatic transfer each month if you want to increase your savings.

This is a relatively new bank account offering from Old Mutual. It is cost-effective with a monthly fee of only R4.50, which includes free card transactions.

As Old Mutual does not have a branch network, the account is driven primarily through retailers, so you can draw cash at a retailer for R1.50 or from any bank’s ATM for R8.50.

Debit orders are R3.40 and an EFT is R2. This makes it one of the most cost-effective accounts on the market.

It is also available to children from the age of seven.

A big plus for kids is that the card can be used for online purchases, so your teenager can buy their own games from their bank account.

FNB: BANK YOUR CHANGE

Like the Old Mutual account, FNB’s Bank Your Change option allows you to allocate money to a linked savings account each time you swipe your card.

The concept is similar to a piggy bank you’d stash your loose change in. Rather than putting it into a jar at home, you can actually earn interest on it.

You select to round up to the nearest R1, R5, R10, R20 or R50 and the difference is paid into your savings account every time you spend.

For example, if you selected to round up to the nearest R10 and bought a litre of milk for R13, the transaction would be rounded up to R20 (the nearest R10) and the R7 difference is paid directly into your FNB linked savings account.

This account pays an interest rate of 5.25% to 6.3%, depending on your balance, which makes it ideal for emergency and short-term savings.

STASH: LONG-TERM INVESTING WHEN YOU SPEND

Stash is an app that simply rounds up transactions when you swipe your bank card and invests the digital spare change in South Africa’s top 40 companies, tax-free and cost-free.

You do not need to be a client of Liberty; it is available to anyone.

In just 49 seconds, you sign up; link your debit, credit or cheque card to the app; and get R50 free to kick-start your investment journey.

Each time you spend on your card, the app rounds up the amount spent to the nearest R10, R20 or R50, and stashes the digital spare change in your investment account.

So when you buy a coffee for R24, Stash rounds this up to R30 and invests R6.

If you select to round up to R20, then it stashes R16. Stash checks your daily bank balance and doesn’t transfer more than you can afford, so you don’t have to worry about going into overdraft.

As it is a tax-free savings account, you pay no investment tax.

You can invest up to R33 000 a year or up to R500 000 over your lifetime in your tax-free saving account.

There are no fees to investing with Stash, so you are not penalised when you cash out and can put in or withdraw money whenever you like.

This is ideal for longer-term savings and you can use it in conjunction with the FNB or Old Mutual accounts.

You can download the Stash app from the Google Play and Apple stores.

SCHOOL-DAYS: SPEND AND SAVE FOR YOUR CHILD’S EDUCATION

School-Days is a similar concept to the My School card except that the money goes directly to an account designated for a child’s school fees and can only be used for school fees.

This could be your own child, a relative or a child you sponsor.

This means parents automatically put money towards their child’s education when they use the card.

School-Days founder Paul Esterhuizen, who was also the brains behind the My School card, says:

“We have schools in South Africa where the annual school fee is only R5 000 a year, and yet, despite there being 40 children in class, there are 40% of parents who are not paying the school fees.

"We can change that – if every family raised R200 a month by doing all their daily shopping with retailers that chipped in 2% of that spend back to the parent into an untouchable school fees account, we could significantly shift the momentum from the non-paying mentality to that of a community of parents who contribute to the school.”

Currently, the main partner is Dis-Chem and, since School-Days’ launch eight months ago, parents who signed up have raised more than R6 million for their children’s education funding with Dis-Chem and School-Days.

This year, School-Days is expanding its partners with Bsmart, the consumer purchase card, opening up School-Days rewards at more than 10 000 retailers.

Nedbank recently joined as a partner, which means Nedbank account holders can sign up and automatically earn money towards their nominated child’s bursary account every time they swipe their Nedbank debit or cheque card at any School-Days
retail partner.

Go to schooldays.co.za for more information.

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