Storing savings in SAHOMELOANS access bond - your experience?

[FlashSA]

Looking for feedback from SA Homeloans clients who have stored savings in their bond and then withdrawn the money when needed.

I have not moved savings across yet but am planning to. When it came to withdraw, did the money come back into your bank account within a day or so. I see their terms and conditions say that withdrawl needs to be a minimum of R10k and a call to their call centre is all that is needed to withdraw money.

Lastly, once you started putting extra money in, did your monthly debit order stay the same or did it reduce? I want mine to stay the same every month...

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Not with SA Homeloans but I've asked myself the above questions with my bank (FNB). I'm of the opinion that one should not park money in your bond. If you need to access the money then rather slap it into a savings account.

I know many will argue the whole interest issue but it only makes sense when you have huge amounts of money deposited in your bond for long periods of time.

Also the temptation to dip into it makes it so much harder to pay off your bond sooner.

 

[FlashSA]

After running the numbers, for every R10k of savings, the following items give me the following returns on investment:

Fixed deposit 2 months = R40pm before compound (4.81% interest per annum - FNB)
45day Notice Deposit = R33.30pm before compound (4% interest per annum - FNB)
Access Bond = R75pm saving (9% interest per annum - SA Homeloans)

So while the savings are small, there is a bigger saving to be had by putting the money into the bond. As I put more money in, the saving will be bigger and compound interest comes into play.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

True and that is the argument everybody uses for putting the money into your bond. But what about the discipline that goes with it?

If SA Homeloans places a 30 day notice period on accessing your funds, then it would be great.

 

[FlashSA]

True and that is the argument everybody uses for putting the money into your bond. But what about the discipline that goes with it?

If SA Homeloans places a 30 day notice period on accessing your funds, then it would be great.

So considering I am a very disciplined spender / saver, the access bond gets your vote?

 

[HavocXphere]

Just make sure you've got an emergency reserve too. You don't have quite the same "entitlement" to it as you would with a cash account. Its quite likely that they could deny a withdrawal. Obviously its good business for them so I don't see them denying anything though.

 

[Purply]

No idea how SAHomeLoans work, but did this with my Absa bond, dropped in spare cash every month which lowered the interest a lot. Nice thing was that withdrawing was instant, no minimum or maximum, with no charges.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

So considering I am a very disciplined spender / saver, the access bond gets your vote?

Sure.

I don't believe there is a silver bullet answer for everybody but if you have the discipline then go for it.

I still need to upgrade my FNB account that will treat my daily bank balance as if it was in my bond.

Will motivate me to think and wait before I do big purchases.

 

[HavocXphere]

Sure.

I don't believe there is a silver bullet answer did everybody but if you have the discipline then go for it.

I still need to upgrade my FNB account that will treat my daily bank balance as if it was in my bond.

Will motivate me to think and wait before I do big purchases.

oooh - nice feature.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Lastly, once you started putting extra money in, did your monthly debit order stay the same or did it reduce? I want mine to stay the same every month...

It's really a simple matter of locking your debit order to a given amount higher than the "required" payment and you are good to go.

This isn't something they will do automatically nor something they can deny you from doing.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

It's really a simple matter of locking your debit order to a given amount higher than the "required" payment and you are good to go.

This isn't something they will do automatically nor something they can deny you from doing.

True.

This feature is suppose to be on my FNB bond online but cannot find it.

I want to also lock my debit order to a higher amount.