Absa

[Johand]

Exactly! My bank fees with FNB will be R66, and with ABSA I was at R302 for October..

Feeling a bit silly now with a Virgin Credit Card, ABSA investment account and FNB cheque account..

I have the same situation - but I have a Cadiz Money Market account. It is not too bad.

Suggestion - Get a FNB credit card - tell them to make the upper limit the same as your monthly spending budget and link that credit card to ebucks. Put all possible transactions through your FNB credit card, don't touch your cheque account for anything but cash and petrol (Yes get a petrol card from FNB and link it to the unlimited option cheque account- petrol transactions are free!). Leave the Virgin money credit card at home except for when you want to make a big ticket purchase that you want to pay over several months. Clear the credit card at the start of each month in arrears - you won't pay any interest. When you just start to implement this, pay over 75% your 1st month spending money into your money market account at the beginning.

Why? If you can put through R5000 a month through your credit card each month:
1) eBucks - get 1% of your spend back = R50. R600 per year. You also get eBucks on your cheque account BTW.
2) Money Market - Gives you 5000 x 12% /12 per Month = R50 per month. Another R600 per year.

Thus you will have R1200 per year extra (less of course credit card fees of R90).

I actually get more money from banks than I pay them currently just by adjusting my behavior. And I am save from reckless behavior because my Virgin Money credit card is at home, and my FNB credit card has a very low limit

 

[Natasha H]

12% interest from Cadiz? Is Cadiz through FNB?

 

[Johand]

Nope - Cadiz is an investment company like Allan Gray. (www.cadiz.co.za). Money market rates fluctuate daily, but I think Cadiz is running at 12.32% (currently). The one year return is at 11.65% (bearing in mind that we had interest rate increases in the past year).

I wouldn't invest with any bank's money market - they have vested interest.

 

[Natasha H]

How long have you been with them?

Do you know anything about: http://www.satrix.co.za/

 

[Bondizzo]

I have the same situation - but I have a Cadiz Money Market account. It is not too bad.

Suggestion - Get a FNB credit card - tell them to make the upper limit the same as your monthly spending budget and link that credit card to ebucks. Put all possible transactions through your FNB credit card, don't touch your cheque account for anything but cash and petrol (Yes get a petrol card from FNB and link it to the unlimited option cheque account- petrol transactions are free!). Leave the Virgin money credit card at home except for when you want to make a big ticket purchase that you want to pay over several months. Clear the credit card at the start of each month in arrears - you won't pay any interest. When you just start to implement this, pay over 75% your 1st month spending money into your money market account at the beginning.

Why? If you can put through R5000 a month through your credit card each month:
1) eBucks - get 1% of your spend back = R50. R600 per year. You also get eBucks on your cheque account BTW.
2) Money Market - Gives you 5000 x 12% /12 per Month = R50 per month. Another R600 per year.

Thus you will have R1200 per year extra (less of course credit card fees of R90).

I actually get more money from banks than I pay them currently just by adjusting my behavior. And I am save from reckless behavior because my Virgin Money credit card is at home, and my FNB credit card has a very low limit

My FNB Unlimited will be open on Thursday, I'm also getting a petrol card with it to make use of the unlimited transactions. I currently have a business account with Absa , and I'm thinking of moving it to FNB as I'm currently paying a monthly fee + internet access fee which comes close to R180 a month

 

[Johand]

How long have you been with them?

Do you know anything about: http://www.satrix.co.za/

Been with Cadiz for a couple of months now - but know them for a long time. One of my friends works for them, and my previous employer had a contract with them (therefor I know some of the insides of the business relatively well). They are a JSE listed company and have been around for a while.

I would not invest through SATRIX website. SATRIX itself is a fund which anybody can invest in through the JSE. The "investment" on the website is just a plain vanilla unit trust outsourced to AOS. I would rather get a better structured unit trust from somebody else with hedges etc. If you want liquidity in the short term it is not a good idea to invest in the stock exchange - especially now.

BTW - FNB launched their own share trading portal. Their products actually make it possible to buy and sell shares in small volumes - monthly fees are R17 (for limited trading) and R40 (for access to all shares). This is a lot cheaper than anywhere else.