Anybody signed up with Tymebank?

[backstreetboy]

Hi guys

It's been a long time since my last post, and it's been a really tough year (for all of us). I'm on leave with my family, but thought it'd be good to give you an update on where we are as TymeBank, where we're headed in the future, and to try to answer some of your questions.

As many of you have noted, we experienced a technical incident earlier this week which saw customers' accounts being incorrectly credited with amounts from a previous EFT file. We scrambled to reverse the incorrect payments - but unfortunately some customers were inconvenienced by the process. Rest assured that none of our customers lost any money - we do, however, apologise unreservedly.

Where are we?
Building a bank from scratch is tough... just ask our friends over at Discovery and BankZero. We've been steadily adding services and features, always trying to find a balance between working to improve the reliability and usability of the existing platform, versus launching something new. To date, nearly 2.6m customers have joined TymeBank - and this has at times stretched our support infrastructure to the point where we've been unable to deliver the levels of service we want to be known for. Our business model is predicated upon building scalable, robust digital processes, which allows us to keep our operating costs at levels dramatically lower than our competitors. This, in turn, is what allows us to offer such competitive pricing on EveryDay and great interest rates GoalSave.

This year, we've added:

• eCommerce (domestic and international) - use your TymeBank Visa Debit card for online purchases
• EarlyPay - we process incoming dated EFTs a day earlier than the industry. This means TymeBank customers receive their salaries a day earlier than salary payments made to other banks.
• GoalSave Salary Kicker - customers who have their salaries paid into their TymeBank EveryDay accounts qualify for an extra GoalSave interest rate kicker - taking the maximum interest rate earned from 7% per annum to 8% per annum.
• Bill payments (payments to "listed beneficiaries that require a structured reference)
• Value Added Services purchases (Electricity, Entertainment, Food & Travel - including Uber and Uber Eats, Gaming, WiFi & VoIP, Insurance, 1ForYou)
• AVS (Account Verification Service) - this is the service that allows a check to be run to confirm the account holder identity (important for loading debit orders and payroll)
• RICA on kiosks - working with Pick n Pay and Boxer, customers are now able to RICA SIMs purchased in store
• Insurance - we have various insurance partnerships and intend to offer a range of great value insurance products

Pricing
We've also recently announced changes to our pricing, with a big focus on ensuring we're still the best value for money bank account in South Africa (no one else comes close).

View attachment 978832

The biggest change we've made is the zero rating of all EFT payments and debit orders.

GoalSave
TymeBank's GoalSave savings product offers the best interest rates and the most flexibility of any bank savings product in South Africa. With GoalSave you earn interest at up to 8% per annum, with monthly compounding:

• 4% from day 1
• 5% after 30 days
• 6% after 60 days
• An additional bonus (taking the maximum rate up to 7%) if you give 10 days notice
• A "salary kicker" that takes the maximum earn rate to 8%

Smart Shopper
TymeBank customers still earn 1SS/R2 spent in Pick n Pay (physical stores and online), and 1SS/R10 on any card purchase outside Pick n Pay. This is in addition to the Smart Shopper points Pick n Pack awards (for purchases in their stores and at BP fuel stations). We're working on more tightly integrating with the Smart Shopper programme:

• Awarding points earned in Pick n Pay at point of sale (i.e. the extra points will reflect on your till slip)
• Displaying a breakdown and total of all points earned inside our digital channels

What's coming next?

MoreTyme​

We currently Beta testing our new "buy now pay later" product with a handful of customers and retail partners (Pick n Pay cellular and NWJ). With MoreTyme you pay 50% upfront, 25% after 30 days and the final 25% another 30 days later - and pay no interest and no fees. We will be making the product available more widely in the coming weeks. We're also concluding agreements with a range of retail partners... watch this space!​

​

RTC​

RTC stands for "Real Time Clearing". We've been working on joining this inter-bank payment stream, and it'll be live in the 1st quarter of 2021. This will mean that TymeBank customers can be paid instantly from other banks' accounts, and our customers will also be able to make payments instantly to other banks' accounts. We'll price this service in the same way as we've priced all our services - always trying to ensure that our customers get the best deal available.​

​

iOS App​

The TymeBank iOS App will (finally!) be available for download on Monday, 21 December. This is a Beta App that won't yet have all the functionality of the Android App, but we figured you guys would rather have 80% now rather than wait for 100% in 3 months' time.​

​

Credit Card​

We have been working on a special TymeBank credit card for over a year. The SA economic environment hasn't been conducive to the launch of a new credit product, but we're hoping that'll change in the next few months. We'll keep you posted.​

Why should you and your family join TymeBank today?

• No downside to try us out - it'll take 5 minutes of your time (join online or using our Android App or at a Pick n Pay or Boxer store), and there are no monthly fees. If you don't use the account, it'll cost you absolutely nothing.
• Most of our customers save R100+ in bank fees every month (some save much more!)
• You'll earn the best possible interest rate on your savings - and still be able to access your money immediately if you need it.
• You can use SendMoney to send money to your friends, family or staff (free to TymeBank customers, R6 to cash out at Pick n Pay or Boxer)
• Buy airtime and electricity and pay no fees (other banks charge a transaction fee)
• WIthdraw cash at Pick n Pay or Boxer tills for free
• Deposit cash at Pick n Pay or Boxer tills for less than half the cost of performing a cash deposit into one of our competitors accounts
• Make payments (EFTs to TymeBank or other banks' customers) or debit order payments for free.
• Use your TymeBank Visa Debit card to make online purchases (some customers use their TymeBank account as a secondary account because they want to protect the funds in their primary account).
• We'll help you switch your debit orders (call our call centre and ask for help)

It's tough convincing customers to switch banks. We're seeing more and more people try us out (often attracted by one of the services listed above), enjoy their experience (despite a few hiccups here and there) and then commit more and more of their banking activities to TymeBank. Many of you have observed that we're trying to motivate customers to switch to us - and that is absolutely right. To build TymeBank into a sustainable business in the long term we need to attract and retain quality customers.

Wishing all of you a safe, relaxing and joyous festive season.

/TymeGuy

Thanks for the update as always. Happy holidays and enjoy the time off!

 

[3WA]

.

Thanks for the updates!

How does the GoalSave salary kicker work? If I have a tenant deposit rent into my account each month, would that count?

 

[TymeGuy]

Thanks for the updates!

How does the GoalSave salary kicker work? If I have a tenant deposit rent into my account each month, would that count?

If the funds come through via the dated EFT service (generally used for paying salaries, wages and grants) we'd recognise the transaction as a salary payment. Otherwise, we look for customers who have regular payments for roughly the same (material) amount coming in every two weeks or once a month, and who also have two debit orders running off their account.

We'd flag you as eligible for the GoalSave Kicker if:

1. Your rental payments are always at roughly the same time of month and don't vary greatly (they might if they include a variable element like electricity and water)
2. The transaction reference has an element of consistency
3. The payments are a reasonably material amount (a couple of thousand rand)
4. You have two active debit orders

The intention is to encourage customers to have their salaries paid into their accounts AND for them to use their accounts - and not to encourage "gaming of the system". This means we'll likely need to review the business rules from time to time.

Despite our low fees, we do make modest amounts of money on the float in EveryDay accounts, from interchange on card transactions (the merchant pays their acquiring bank, who pay the scheme (Visa, Mastercard etc.), who then pay us), from commissions on the sale of Value Added Services (airtime, electricity, etc.) and on some of the transactions we do charge for. We've also started selling insurance products. The business model works if we can get to proper scale (millions of active customers) - which you guys are helping us achieve.

/TymeGuy

 

[supersunbird]

RTC​

RTC stands for "Real Time Clearing". We've been working on joining this inter-bank payment stream, and it'll be live in the 1st quarter of 2021. This will mean that TymeBank customers can be paid instantly from other banks' accounts, and our customers will also be able to make payments instantly to other banks' accounts. We'll price this service in the same way as we've priced all our services - always trying to ensure that our customers get the best deal available.​

​

​

Credit Card​

We have been working on a special TymeBank credit card for over a year. The SA economic environment hasn't been conducive to the launch of a new credit product, but we're hoping that'll change in the next few months. We'll keep you posted.​

Instant ETFs? Great news! I often do not want my money to linger between banks if I want to transfer.


You'll get a lot of customers if credit card monthly fee is affordable, R25pm total or less. You'd have had them already if it was already released, all us ex-Virgin Money CC holders for one. I'd be sure to close my soon R50.50pm Nedbank CC in flash and move to Tyme. It's not like the interest rate on yours could be worse.

 

[Speedster]

If the funds come through via the dated EFT service (generally used for paying salaries, wages and grants) we'd recognise the transaction as a salary payment. Otherwise, we look for customers who have regular payments for roughly the same (material) amount coming in every two weeks or once a month, and who also have two debit orders running off their account.

We'd flag you as eligible for the GoalSave Kicker if:

1. Your rental payments are always at roughly the same time of month and don't vary greatly (they might if they include a variable element like electricity and water)
2. The transaction reference has an element of consistency
3. The payments are a reasonably material amount (a couple of thousand rand)
4. You have two active debit orders

The intention is to encourage customers to have their salaries paid into their accounts AND for them to use their accounts - and not to encourage "gaming of the system". This means we'll likely need to review the business rules from time to time.

Despite our low fees, we do make modest amounts of money on the float in EveryDay accounts, from interchange on card transactions (the merchant pays their acquiring bank, who pay the scheme (Visa, Mastercard etc.), who then pay us), from commissions on the sale of Value Added Services (airtime, electricity, etc.) and on some of the transactions we do charge for. We've also started selling insurance products. The business model works if we can get to proper scale (millions of active customers) - which you guys are helping us achieve.

/TymeGuy

This is great. Am I able to open accounts for my underage kids?

 

[TymeGuy]

This is great. Am I able to open accounts for my underage kids?

I'm afraid they'd need to be 16 years or older. We do have some customers who have discovered a "work around" - opening a TymeBank business account and naming it after their kid! This is actually quite elegant in that the child will get a TymeBank Visa Debit card with their name on it, and their own separate transaction and savings accountants. If there is enough demand for something like this, we may consider "formalising" it - but we'll always try to stick the "solve for the 99%, not the 1%" mantra.

For 16 year old school kids or students the TymeBank account is ideal - if you've also got a TymeBank account you can send your children money at zero cost, and they also won't incur bank fees for most transactions (no monthly fee, no cash withdrawal fees at Pick n Pay tills, no fees to SendMoney to their friends or do EFTs, no VAS purchase fees, etc.)

GoalSave also means they get to save their spare cash and learn about interest. If you check your GoalSave balance via the App or Internet Banking, you'll see the interest earned updates daily (it gets accrued and capitalised at the end of the month). My own kids love the fact that they can see their money growing every day.

/TymeGuy

 

[Speedster]

I'm afraid they'd need to be 16 years or older. We do have some customers who have discovered a "work around" - opening a TymeBank business account and naming it after their kid! This is actually quite elegant in that they'll get a TymeBank Visa Debit card with their name on it, and their own separate transaction and savings accountants. If there is enough demand for something like this, we may consider "formalising" it - but we'll always try to stick the "solve for the 99%, not the 1%" mantra.

/TymeGuy

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Speedster]

What I believe would be a big hit is a low-cost business account (for incorporated businesses / trusts). We're all waiting to see what Capitec does with Mercantile, but whoever is first to market with something like this will be in great demand.

 

[TymeGuy]

What I believe would be a big hit is a low-cost business account (for incorporated businesses / trusts). We're all waiting to see what Capitec does with Mercantile, but whoever is first to market with something like this will be in great demand.

It's something we're keen to do - but dealing with juristics is obviously more complicated than natural persons and sole props. To do it right, we'd need to integrate with CIPC, and build elegant processes for onboarding and managing the various related parties to the business - mandates, authorities, permissions and controls for directors, partners, accountants, debtors and creditors clerks, etc. Building this stuff takes time - and we have all manner of competing priorities (e.g. there's a huge market out there for anyone able to come up with elegant solutions for onboarding and maintaining regulator-compliant relationships with foreign nationals).

I need another holiday!

 

[Speedster]

It's something we're keen to do - but dealing with juristics is obviously more complicated than natural persons and sole props. To do it right, we'd need to integrate with CIPC, and build elegant processes for onboarding and managing the various related parties to the business - mandates, authorities, permissions and controls for directors, partners, accountants, debtors and creditors clerks, etc. Building this stuff takes time - and we have all manner of competing priorities (e.g. there's a huge market out there for anyone able to come up with elegant solutions for onboarding and maintaining regulator-compliant relationships with foreign nationals).

I need another holiday!

I can imagine it is a significant project, and obviously you need to focus on where you believe will be most effective for growing your business.

After my last post I did some googling and notice Standard Bank have a R5pm business account. I'll be making a plan to open one asap.

 

[zerocool2009]

Looking forward to the ios app! Hopefully monday is D-day for that! Thanks for the updates

 

[cr@zydude]

Hi guys

It's been a long time since my last post, and it's been a really tough year (for all of us). I'm on leave with my family, but thought it'd be good to give you an update on where we are as TymeBank, where we're headed in the future, and to try to answer some of your questions.

As many of you have noted, we experienced a technical incident earlier this week which saw customers' accounts being incorrectly credited with amounts from a previous EFT file. We scrambled to reverse the incorrect payments - but unfortunately some customers were inconvenienced in the process. Rest assured that none of our customers lost any money - we do, however, apologise unreservedly.

Where are we?
Building a bank from scratch is tough... just ask our friends over at Discovery and BankZero. We've been steadily adding services and features, always trying to find a balance between working to improve the reliability and usability of the existing platform, versus launching something new. To date, nearly 2.6m customers have joined TymeBank - and this has at times stretched our support infrastructure to the point where we've been unable to deliver the levels of service we want to be known for. Our business model is predicated upon building scalable, robust digital processes, which allows us to keep our operating costs at levels dramatically lower than our competitors. This, in turn, is what allows us to offer such competitive pricing on EveryDay and great interest rates on GoalSave.

This year, we've added:

• eCommerce (domestic and international) - use your TymeBank Visa Debit card for online purchases
• EarlyPay - we process incoming dated EFTs a day earlier than the industry. This means TymeBank customers receive their salaries a day earlier than salary payments made to other banks.
• GoalSave Salary Kicker - customers who have their salaries paid into their TymeBank EveryDay accounts qualify for an extra GoalSave interest rate kicker - taking the maximum interest rate earned from 7% per annum to 8% per annum.
• Bill payments (payments to "listed beneficiaries that require a structured reference)
• Value Added Services purchases (Electricity, Entertainment, Food & Travel - including Uber and Uber Eats, Gaming, WiFi & VoIP, Insurance, 1ForYou)
• AVS (Account Verification Service) - this is the service that allows a check to be run to confirm the account holder identity (important for loading debit orders and payroll)
• RICA on kiosks - working with Pick n Pay and Boxer, customers are now able to RICA SIMs purchased in store
• Insurance - we have various insurance partnerships and intend to offer a range of great value insurance products

Pricing
We've also recently announced changes to our pricing, with a big focus on ensuring we're still the best value for money bank account in South Africa (no one else comes close).

View attachment 978832

The biggest change we've made is the zero rating of all EFT payments and debit orders.

GoalSave
TymeBank's GoalSave savings product offers the best interest rates and the most flexibility of any bank savings product in South Africa. With GoalSave you earn interest at up to 8% per annum, with monthly compounding:

• 4% from day 1
• 5% after 30 days
• 6% after 60 days
• An additional bonus (taking the maximum rate up to 7%) if you give 10 days notice
• A "salary kicker" that takes the maximum earn rate to 8%

Smart Shopper
TymeBank customers still earn 1SS/R2 spent in Pick n Pay (physical stores and online), and 1SS/R10 on any card purchase outside Pick n Pay. This is in addition to the Smart Shopper points Pick n Pack awards (for purchases in their stores and at BP fuel stations). We're working on more tightly integrating with the Smart Shopper programme:

• Awarding points earned in Pick n Pay at point of sale (i.e. the extra points will reflect on your till slip)
• Displaying a breakdown and total of all points earned inside our digital channels

What's coming next?

MoreTyme​

We currently Beta testing our new "buy now pay later" product with a handful of customers and retail partners (Pick n Pay cellular and NWJ). With MoreTyme you pay 50% upfront, 25% after 30 days and the final 25% another 30 days later - and pay no interest and no fees. We will be making the product available more widely in the coming weeks. We're also concluding agreements with a range of retail partners... watch this space!​

​

RTC / Instant EFT​

RTC stands for "Real Time Clearing". Also known as "Instant EFT". We've been working on joining this inter-bank payment stream, and it'll be live in the 1st quarter of 2021. This will mean that TymeBank customers can be paid instantly from other banks' accounts, and our customers will also be able to make payments instantly to other banks' accounts. We'll price this service in the same way as we've priced all our services - always trying to ensure that our customers get the best deal available.​

​

iOS App​

The TymeBank iOS App will (finally!) be available for download on Monday, 21 December. This is a Beta App that won't yet have all the functionality of the Android App, but we figured you guys would rather have 80% now rather than wait for 100% in 3 months' time.​

​

Credit Card​

We have been working on a special TymeBank credit card for over a year. The SA economic environment hasn't been conducive to the launch of a new credit product, but we're hoping that'll change in the next few months. We'll keep you posted.​

Why should you and your family join TymeBank today?

• No downside to try us out - it'll take 5 minutes of your time (join online or using our Android App or at a Pick n Pay or Boxer store), and there are no monthly fees. If you don't use the account, it'll cost you absolutely nothing.
• Most of our customers save R100+ in bank fees every month (some save much more!)
• You'll earn the best possible interest rate on your savings - and still be able to access your money immediately if you need it.
• You can use SendMoney to send money to your friends, family or staff (free to TymeBank customers, R6 to cash out at Pick n Pay or Boxer)
• Buy airtime and electricity and pay no fees (other banks charge a transaction fee)
• WIthdraw cash at Pick n Pay or Boxer tills for free
• Deposit cash at Pick n Pay or Boxer tills for less than half the cost of performing a cash deposit into one of our competitors accounts
• Make payments (EFTs to TymeBank or other banks' customers) or debit order payments for free.
• Use your TymeBank Visa Debit card to make online purchases (some customers use their TymeBank account as a secondary account because they want to protect the funds in their primary account).
• We'll help you switch your debit orders (call our call centre and ask for help)

It's tough convincing customers to switch banks. We're seeing more and more people try us out (often attracted by one of the services listed above), enjoy their experience (despite a few hiccups here and there) and then commit more and more of their banking activities to TymeBank. Many of you have observed that we're trying to motivate customers to switch to us - and that is absolutely right. To build TymeBank into a sustainable business in the long term we need to attract and retain quality customers.

Wishing all of you a safe, relaxing and joyous festive season.

/TymeGuy

Thanks for the update. Get moving on that credit card, I and many others need replacements for our Virgin Money credit cards.

 

[Aharon]

Thanks for the updates indeed. You gave done great work this year!

Happy holidays to the Tyme bank team and their families

 

[zerocool2009]

Could any ios user find the Tyme app?

 

[supersunbird]

Could any ios user find the Tyme app?

What an eager beaver lol. Monday 21st Dec will consist of 24 hours like any other, they did not specify a time.

 

[zerocool2009]

What an eager beaver lol. Monday 21st Dec will consist of 24 hours like any other, they did not specify a time.

Lol! Lets see. Not holding my breath ....

 

[MikeCTZA]

Has anyone noticed the SmartShopper earnings have gone down and down and down? What is the earn rate now?

Went back in posts and looks like it was 1SS/R3 (admittedly that was Feb 2019) but is now 1SS/R10 so ... yes looks like it went down quite substantially. I guess anything is better than nothing these days.

 

[Aharon]

Thanks @MikeCTZA

Look I wont say no to any rewards these days, but it is low - like 0.1% - having said that - it is the only "cheap" bank accout offering any rewards.

 

[mervman]

Thanks @MikeCTZA

Look I wont say no to any rewards these days, but it is low - like 0.1% - having said that - it is the only "cheap" bank accout offering any rewards.

Old Mutual Money account also offers rewards. It's a R5.00 per month bank account though. I would still consider it 'cheap'.

 

[Antelope]

Thanks for writing to TymeBank.
The promotion has ended and all deposits will be R4 per R1000 except your first ever deposit into anew TymeBank account.
The TymeBank Team


Has anyone seen the free deposit being advertised as a promotion?
Am I the only one who has seen it on their pricing, and not as a promotion with an expiry date?

@TymeGuy what actually transpired with the free deposits?