The right bank account can help you find the money to be a saver

Vanesha Palani, ?Executive, Transactional Products (Retail) at Nedbank Group.

South Africans are not known for their savings habits. In fact, our country ranks as one of the worst in the world when it comes to saving and investing money for the future. Of course, it’s not easy to save, especially with the many financial challenges that face most of us these days. With rising petrol and food costs, increasing inflation, and now the possibility of higher interest rates, it’s understandable why so many people say they just don’t have any money left over to put into savings or investments.

However, with a bit of careful planning, self-discipline, and some good decision-making, it is possible for most of us to find even a small amount of money to start saving for that better future we all want. And experts agree that it’s not how much you have to save that is important, it is just that you start saving as soon as possible, with whatever you can – even if it’s just a few rand a month.

As a bank that’s committed to using its financial expertise to do good for all South Africans, Nedbank not only offers a wide range of savings and investment accounts of all shapes and sizes, we have also designed our transactional bank accounts to help you find the money to deposit into these savings accounts every month.

The Nedbank Pay-as-you-use Account is a great example of how Nedbank helps clients to save on their monthly bank fees.

The Nedbank Pay-as-you-use Account is a basic everyday bank account specifically designed for people who prefer to pay a low monthly fee and then only pay for the transactions that they do. For only R5.50 per month, clients enjoy free access to Nedbank’s award-winning MoneyApp for electronic transactions and prepaid purchases. The account also offers unlimited free card swipes for shopping in physical or online stores. By changing their banking behaviour to using mobile and self-service channels for transactions and limiting the use of cash, clients can save a significant amount of money on bank fees.

The money saved can be put to work in a linked Nedbank savings product. The Nedbank MyPocket is a free feature that comes with a transactional account and allows clients to easily keep separate pockets of money for different purposes. The MyPockets can be used to save towards specific goals like a holiday or special event, and can also be used to help manage your money more easily; by having the Mypockets for different expenses like food, school fees, petrol, debit orders. Clients can create up to ten separate MyPockets and these can all be given unique names so they know what the money is saved for.

The interest rate earned on the funds saved in the MyPockets is very competitive 5% on balances below R10 000. Thefunds can be accessed immediately by transferring into the linked transactional account b at no cost by using the Nedbank MoneyApp and SMS banking whilst on the move.

And if you put all the money you save on bank fees by using the Nedbank Pay-as-you-use Account into one of Nedbank’s value-adding savings or investment products every month, your savings will steadily grow.