I work for one of the major banks in South Africa for the past ten years and have picked up some tips for banking smarter.
Bank charges in SA are ridiculous, if you don't monitor your bank charges you could rack up an annual bill going into thousands of Rands. Don't look at your bank charges on a month to month basis, look at it annually, only then will you realize the financial impact bank charges have on your pocket.
Controlling your bank charges takes alot of discipline, so use some tools to help you along. I've got one of those android smart phones, so there are alot of apps available to help me manage my money. I've got a credit card app that I use to record all my swipes, so I know where I stand at any given time on my credit card balance.
It's good to record all your swipes and not to rely on a balance notification from the bank. Sometimes a store might only tally a credit card machine at the end of the week and the debit might not have gone off your account and the balance notification from the bank will tell you that you have x amount available and yet in reality you have less. And when you swipe again not realizing that you have gone over your limit, you get hit with an overlimit fee, which is something close to R200.
Another thing about using your credit card is, settle your balance at the end of every month. This also means that you shouldn't spend more than you can afford in a single month. Settling your balance guarentees you that you won't be charged interest. Also use your budget facility only if you can settle the budget balance within that month.
One good thing about paying with a credit card is you don't get charged with a transaction fee, unlike a debit card you get charged every time you swipe. So this is what you do, estimate how much you are going to spend in a month and top up your credit card with that amount in one transfer, then use your credit card for all your purchases, even if it is bread and milk.
You should also try and draw cash from an ATM once a month, so draw enough to last you the whole month for those cash purchases, I draw R500, and it's more than enough. Everything else I swipe. This way you only have 2 transactions on your account.
Ok, I spoke about using tools to help you bank smarter in the previous post, so again sticking with the cell phone, let me tell you about another tip.
If you have a low credit limit and you normally would come close to maxing out your credit card at the end of every month, it's good to know when your annual card fee goes off your credit card account. Why I say this is that we normally forget about this card fee and when it does go off your, and if your account is maxed out, you will go over your credit limit and you will be charged that overlimit fee.
So what I do is I use the calendar feature on my phone, most phones have a calendar, to remind me that a particular month is my annual card fee month. So I can leave sufficient funds in the account for the charges to go off.
Bank charges in SA are ridiculous, if you don't monitor your bank charges you could rack up an annual bill going into thousands of Rands. Don't look at your bank charges on a month to month basis, look at it annually, only then will you realize the financial impact bank charges have on your pocket.
Controlling your bank charges takes alot of discipline, so use some tools to help you along. I've got one of those android smart phones, so there are alot of apps available to help me manage my money. I've got a credit card app that I use to record all my swipes, so I know where I stand at any given time on my credit card balance.
It's good to record all your swipes and not to rely on a balance notification from the bank. Sometimes a store might only tally a credit card machine at the end of the week and the debit might not have gone off your account and the balance notification from the bank will tell you that you have x amount available and yet in reality you have less. And when you swipe again not realizing that you have gone over your limit, you get hit with an overlimit fee, which is something close to R200.
Another thing about using your credit card is, settle your balance at the end of every month. This also means that you shouldn't spend more than you can afford in a single month. Settling your balance guarentees you that you won't be charged interest. Also use your budget facility only if you can settle the budget balance within that month.
One good thing about paying with a credit card is you don't get charged with a transaction fee, unlike a debit card you get charged every time you swipe. So this is what you do, estimate how much you are going to spend in a month and top up your credit card with that amount in one transfer, then use your credit card for all your purchases, even if it is bread and milk.
You should also try and draw cash from an ATM once a month, so draw enough to last you the whole month for those cash purchases, I draw R500, and it's more than enough. Everything else I swipe. This way you only have 2 transactions on your account.
Ok, I spoke about using tools to help you bank smarter in the previous post, so again sticking with the cell phone, let me tell you about another tip.
If you have a low credit limit and you normally would come close to maxing out your credit card at the end of every month, it's good to know when your annual card fee goes off your credit card account. Why I say this is that we normally forget about this card fee and when it does go off your, and if your account is maxed out, you will go over your credit limit and you will be charged that overlimit fee.
So what I do is I use the calendar feature on my phone, most phones have a calendar, to remind me that a particular month is my annual card fee month. So I can leave sufficient funds in the account for the charges to go off.