Credit Card Round Up Savings

NightSprite

Hi There,

Looking at several ways to push more of my precious pennies into my ISA account, (which, btw, I'm not sure I'm using correctly but it holds my money, so meh!)

I've been hearing about these transactions rounding up services, where you take a purchase and it pushes the rest of the pennies into an investment. From what I've seen it's mostly debit cards and a third party investment service, like the Moneybox app.

I was wondering if there is a service that uses a credit card and your own savings account that's already setup. For the record, I have NatWest accounts, who don't have there own "round up" service like Lloyds or TSB.

Many Thanks

YorkshireBoy

What you might be describing is slow-stoozing on a 0% credit card, where you end the month with a, say, £400 credit card balance. You pay the £25 minimum each month and put the remaining £375 into regular savers paying 5% AER.

At the end of the intro period (say 2 years) you repay the full balance remaining from the capital in the regular savers and the interest is yours to keep.

I mention 5% AER above because that's the best paying savings account at the moment. What's your cash ISA paying at the moment?...1%?...2%? Is it a HTB or LISA?

NightSprite

Thank you, but no, that's not what I'm after.

What I'm after is where if I spend £1.39 on a cup of tea, the 11p is sent to my ISA account....

ceredigion

save the change ?


No I have never seen a credit card offer it and I can't see how they could

NightSprite

ceredigion wrote: »

save the change ?


No I have never seen a credit card offer it and I can't see how they could

Why not? I don't understand? Why does it work for a debit card but not a credit card?

Zoea

OP You're way ahead of the curve it's coming. Will be funs

YorkshireBoy

NightSprite wrote: »

What I'm after is where if I spend £1.39 on a cup of tea, the 11p is sent to my ISA account....

You'd save a lot more if you cut out the frequent 'comfort' spends...£1.50 a time in fact, not 11p.

Why does it work for a debit card but not a credit card?

It's a gimmick! They (at a loss initially due to the set up costs) try to get you into the savings habit. They hope you then give them more of your savings further down the line, which they can then lend credit card, loan, and mortgage customers for a profit.

ceredigion

NightSprite wrote: »

Why not? I don't understand? Why does it work for a debit card but not a credit card?

Well if we assume you have a credit card with a high street bank that also provides saving account's. Would you expect the change to be credited in to the saving's account before you pay the bill in up to 60 days time. If so there are people on here that would quite happily put through hundreds of transactions for pennies then use the saving's account to pay the bill. Costing the CC company lots of money.
What if people don't pay on time, can see the public out cry now, "CC company charged me 29% interest on money I never spent"
Retailers paying a % of the transaction in fees will be ecstatic at the proposal if all transactions are rounded up.

Eco_Miser

NightSprite wrote: »

What I'm after is where if I spend £1.39 on a cup of tea, the 11p is sent to my ISA account....

Why?
What good is an extra 11p in your ISA account going to do?
Go back over your spending for the last several months and add up how much you would have saved using this method then calculate the monthly average, and set up a standing order to the savings account. Much simpler and not dependent on whether your purchase was 99p or 101p.

colsten

NightSprite wrote: »

Why not? I don't understand? Why does it work for a debit card but not a credit card?

spending with a debit card, you are using your money (the 'save the pennies' scheme doesn't work if overdrawn). With a credit card, you are using the card provider's money. You could argue that they should be happy to lend you some extra money, in the hope that you won't be able to repay in full each month and that they can then charge you the extortionate interest credit cards come with. This would no doubt be leading to complaints from people.

In any case, though, these penny savings schemes are nothing more than gimmicks. MoneySavingExperts would use a different approach to savings and give gimmicks a wide berth - see https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/which-saving-account

NightSprite

Eco_Miser wrote: »

Why?
What good is an extra 11p in your ISA account going to do?
Go back over your spending for the last several months and add up how much you would have saved using this method then calculate the monthly average, and set up a standing order to the savings account. Much simpler and not dependent on whether your purchase was 99p or 101p.

Well, I already have a set standing order going into this particular rainy day fund, I was just thinking a few pennies would be the sprinkles.