If you like many of use mobile banking applications, you know not just how useful they are, but almost essential they are.
Contactless payments now are good to £100, many of us when asked if we need a receipt, say no. And why, some banks now send an immediate message to you confirming the sale and the amount. It’s all recorded by the bank, and now by you on your mobile phone.
You can go into the mobile banking app, see your transactions, transfer money, pay bills, and even see other bank accounts….with other banks! Amazing!
It just makes like easier, and there in the palm of your hand are your finances.
But yet with all this technology and access to our money recently some banks have implemented and made available a very old school savings method…..rounding up.
The Rounding Up Method of Saving Money
I remember years ago, and I mean decades ago, working with clients who wanted to save money, but in some ways were having trouble doing so, and speaking to them about a method of saving called the round up method.
Now you have to remember, this was way before the Internet, Internet banking, banking applications on your computer or mobile phone. In fact this was before the use of mobile phones, as no one had one. Let alone a mobile phone you could listen to music, take photos, have applications, etc. This was the real analog/analogue days, no zeros and ones, no binary format.
When you paid for a purchase, you could use a cheque, remember those. Then later, cash cards or debit cards became a more popular ways to pay for purchases.
In simple terms the rounding up way to save is if a purchase is £3.95, you round it up to £4.00. This leaves .05p in your account. You do this for all purchases, that are not an even amount, like £3, or £5.
Back in the day if you were to use this method, you did it on paper, your cheque book register, or some other form of how you balanced or reconciled your bank account.
Enough of these round-ups and you may see an extra £5 or more in your account very quickly. Especially if a purchase is £2.20, you round up to £3, and have that .80p saved.
While a simple method to save money, you would then have to transfer that extra rounded up amount to a savings account. It became a bit of work, and trouble.
But not today, no not today. Many banks are offering a rounding up method that does it all for you. Not only does the bank round up your purchases to the next pound, but they take that amount and place it in a savings account, or the account of your choice.
I have seen people save easily £10 to £20 or more a month!
That is an additional £120 or more each year, just by making purchases as you do, and having the rounded amount placed into a savings account.
This is a great way to save money, little by little, but little by little adds up.