Canadian bank starts small change savings programme?
Canada-based Scotiabank has started a programme that helps people save via their ‘small change’ when making everyday purchases with their debit card.
Members of the the Bank the Rest programme can choose to round up the total purchase amount on debit card transactions to the nearest dollar or five dollars, and have the difference deposited automatically into the Scotiabank Money Master high interest savings account.
“Canadians enjoy the flexibility of using their debit cards to make purchases and we are building on that service to provide greater value to our customers by adding a savings option,” said Gillian Riley, MD & head, retail deposits and services at Sxcotibank which has 12.5 million customers in 50 countries.
If customers signed up to round up to the nearest dollar, and made a debit purchase for C$7.50, 50 cents would automatically be transferred from their chequing account into their Money Master account. If that person had decided to round up to the nearest five dollars, C$2.50 would be transferred.
The bank says someone who does 19 transactions per month, and has chosen to round up to the nearest dollar could save approximately C$9.50 per month. If they chose to round up to the nearest five dollars, savings could climb to around C$47.50 at the end of the month.
More info: www.banktherest.com