{"id":619315,"date":"2022-08-30T09:36:38","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T07:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=619315"},"modified":"2022-08-30T13:18:01","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T11:18:01","slug":"south-africas-lowest-cost-bank-isnt-a-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/619315\/south-africas-lowest-cost-bank-isnt-a-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s lowest-cost bank isn’t a bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shoprite Group is planning to expand its Money Market Account<\/a><\/strong> to act as a transactional account similar to traditional banking services.<\/p>\n

Jean Olivier, the general manager of financial services at Shoprite, said that the new update will be the closest thing to a free, all-inclusive transactional banking experience.<\/p>\n

Prior to the update, the Money Market Account only allowed for in-store deposits to be made into the account. After the update goes live, customers will be able to make electronic fund transfers into the accounts.<\/p>\n

“Our goal is to become South Africa’s largest low-cost transaction banking account,” said Olivier.<\/p>\n

There is only one fee attached to the account: when there are withdrawals from the Money Market account. Aside from that, there are no SMS fees, transaction fees or monthly fees, Olivier said.<\/p>\n

Money Market Account Fees<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Shoprite is currently targeting customers who earn R10,000 or less a month for its accounts. Olivier said that the account could become the primary banking solution for people in this bracket; however, people who earn more may need more functionality.<\/p>\n

The average withdrawal currently concluded on the Money Market Account is roughly R500 and deposits average R350, said Olivier.<\/p>\n

As of August, the Money Market Account has 1.7 million users, of which 1.2 million have activated the cash account through the FICA process.<\/p>\n

The Money Market has two accounts within it, the voucher account that can be used for rewards on goods sold at Shoprite-affiliated stores and the transactional account.<\/p>\n

In terms of business banking, Olivier said the group would be looking solely at the consumer; however, the group encourages businesses to use the accounts as a place to pay employees’ salaries.<\/p>\n

Customer service<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the rapid uptick in clientele using the account, Shoprite has been on a recruitment drive to expand its IT and data analytics capabilities.<\/p>\n

He said that, unlike other banking companies that are moving further online, Shoprite is ensuring that they have branches and call centres that can assist with any queries with the account.<\/p>\n

Olivier said that Shoprite has the advantage of being open from eight in the morning until the early parts of the evening for people who have a query regarding their new transactional account and want in-person consultations.<\/p>\n

Combined with the Money Market customer help services in each Shoprite store, the group also has a call centre – resulting in a lot of customer and technical support people as well as call centre workers being in demand.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: Hawks investigating R1.5 trillion in dodgy deals.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shoprite is planning to offer a transaction account that will target lower income South Africans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":621011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[26,7520],"class_list":["post-619315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-headline","tag-shoprite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619315"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":621189,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619315\/revisions\/621189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}