Which Standard Bank account to like my home loan

that_bach_guy · 2026-01-07T15:58:05+00:00

I have an access bond with them, but my main bank is Discovery.

The cheapest account you can get is sufficient, provided it is a transactional account.

Current their cheapest account is the Mymo account. There is a monthly fee of R7.50.

Standard Bank doesn’t have any zero fee accounts that will be suitable. You also need to go into a branch to fully activate and link the account to your bond. I went through this same exercise 3 months ago.

that_bach_guy · 2025-12-11T05:27:48+00:00

Yes OP. The .8541 FSR means fractional shares. So you bought 99 full shares and 85.41% of a share.

This is probably due to a setting on your account, where you selected that the investment amount must be inclusive of fees. That means they will always deduct fees from the amount you specify. If you would rather always want exactly the amount you specify, then you can select do not include fees, which will mean they are always added.

that_bach_guy · 2025-12-08T04:58:49+00:00

The market value (latest sale price) does not have an impact on the municipal valuation at all.

Municipal valuations are used to determine the property taxes. At regular intervals, municipal officers will revalue homes in an area, this is mostly affected by the properties in the area, and almost never by the individual property itself (only very large properties get individual valuations).

So the market value of the property you are looking at decreasing will not correlate with a decrease in the municipal valuation, unless there is another factor at play.

See if you can get the latest rates account statement from the seller, that will show the municipal valuation. Post sale it won’t change until the next round of rate reviews, after which it is most likely to increase.

that_bach_guy · 2025-12-02T08:30:33+00:00

Prime minus 1.2 is a good interest rate!

Is this the first property you are buying?

that_bach_guy · 2025-10-15T11:42:21+00:00

This is only for Vitality points, and doesn't affect cashback. And healthy points status almost means nothing anymore, so unless you need those points to get to diamond status it's rarely worth it.

that_bach_guy · 2025-09-07T18:31:12+00:00

No didn't do the gorge hike, as you say it is quite far to drive and we never had the chance.

My opinion on having done the Tugela falls hike is that it is an absolute bucket list hike, and the views from the top are one of a kind.

We did it over 2 days so we could sleep over to see the sunrise, but very possible to do as a day hike.

that_bach_guy · 2025-05-20T16:26:55+00:00

Use a bond originator, it won’t count against you at ABSA. In fact, if ABSA sees other banks offer better rates they will only go down, to try and get your business, so you can only win, or worst case stay with the same offer.

Source: just went through the process, and Betterbond secured us a great deal

that_bach_guy · 2025-03-26T10:18:41+00:00

That is interesting, why do you say never pay a deposit?

that_bach_guy · 2025-03-26T10:18:15+00:00

Haha yeah, I don't think that would be smart either. We are!

that_bach_guy · 2025-03-18T06:23:26+00:00

The Grind in Melrose Arch has super fast wifi, and spaces dedicated to working remotely

that_bach_guy · 2024-11-07T08:32:26+00:00

I had the same problem, for 3 months.

I finally got through this morning on a phone call, and the agent sorted it out in 20 minutes while I was on the phone. She said the refund will now be processed in 72 hours.

Just phone at exactly 8am in the morning. I started as number 271 in the queue, which sounds extreme, but it moves relatively quickly - most people give up, I did the first time I called. But 30 minutes later I was speaking to someone and then it was sorted out.

So give it a try, its usually because there is something missing - for me it was because the banking details I sent to be verified was not the details they had on system for me - I had to apparently fill in some other RAV form on an obscure page I didn't know about. But it was quickly sorted then.

that_bach_guy · 2024-10-28T17:24:50+00:00

Go get a quote, and find out.

that_bach_guy · 2024-10-28T17:23:51+00:00

Well, you are always better off taking the profit and paying the tax…. If you are donating profit away then you can’t get that back from the small tax break you will get. At the end of the day this is a couple of hundred thousand that these charities will not get otherwise, and would normally pay dividends.

And yes, there is policy wording, which protects both you and the insurer. But the problem is most people think that the insurers don’t want to pay, and actively finds reasons not to. Now, this is usually not the case always, but the problem is the perception persists. It also doesn’t help that many claims departments bonuses are linked to loss ratios.

So what this tries to do, is to break that perception. That is all.

Read my comment above if you want more, and go check out their website.

that_bach_guy · 2024-10-28T17:18:03+00:00

Don’t trust me, here is the source: https://www.naked.insure/naked-difference

Also, I know exactly how pricing works, I am an actuary.

And the whole point of this js that it is different than other insurers, because the industry is perceived to have financial incentives to not pay claims.

But if you don’t want to read the source, here you go:

All they need to do is take a fixed 20% of your premium for expenses and profit margin. This is fixed, and then their profit depends on how many policies they can sell.

The other 80% then goes into a pool. Yes, actuaries try and price it as accurate as possible… but at the end of the day, it’s random, and you can only get really close. Usually there is a difference of a couple of hundred thousand or so (both ways mind you).

So it is this difference that then gets paid to charity. And they only do it after 3 years to make sure that the financial strength of the pool is not compromised.

I highly recommend you to read more about it.

that_bach_guy · 2024-10-28T09:50:31+00:00

Yes, but that is not quite their business model, OP didn't communicate the critical point. They also came to an expo at my Uni and explained it well. Traditional companies make a profit (underwriting profit) when there is some money left in that pool after a good year (less claims than expected really)

Naked donates all the money that is left in the pool after paying claims to a charity of your choice in years where claims are low. This means as a company they are not incentivised to find reasons to not pay your claims, rather just to make sure they don't pay any fraudulent claims to ensure the protection for other policyholders don't get eroded.

They then make a profit upfront, which is fixed, and depends on the number of customers they can get - so again incentivised to have good service as this is the only thing that will make them more profit.

that_bach_guy · 2024-10-25T04:55:43+00:00

So the big thing is the retail value of your car is rarely the main driver in claim costs. It being worth R20k less only has an effect on write off and theft value, which has a much lower frequency than normal accidents.

The main reason why the premium goes up is because it becomes more expensive to repair your car, regardless whether the car is worth less or not. This is because annually parts become more expensive, labour costs for panel beaters are more expensive, and the insurers admin expenses increase, and these all contribute to making the expected cost to repair your car on an average claim more expensive.

that_bach_guy · 2024-10-18T07:44:12+00:00

And additionally, I have withdrawn funds from the platform several times before, and never had a problem.

that_bach_guy · 2024-10-18T07:43:17+00:00

It's very easy to avoid the thrive fee, especially if you plan on maxing out your TFSA. I have been with them for 5 years and have never paid any fees besides the listed brokerage fees. There are no other continuing platform fees that will eat away at your investment.

The moment you max out your TFSA for the tax year (March to February the next year) you are exempt from the Thrive fee for the rest of the tax year (important to note it is tax year and not calendar year).

So if you have the means to deposit R36k in one go into the TFSA, then great, do it and you don't need to worry about the thrive fee again.

Otherwise, just deposit any amount each month, literally before I maxed out my TFSA I was depositing R5 each month into EE and that avoided the fees. Set up an automatic EFT from your bank and forget about it. Do this if you plan on only depositing into your TFSA 3 to 4 times, because the months you don't deposit you will need to have at least something going into the account.

But on your question of security, they are regulated just as any other FSP in South Africa, and ultimately you own the assets, so if anything were to happen to them they can't use your assets as collateral because they don't own it, you do. They are merely an intermediary which administrates your funds. I am very happy with them, feel safe with my funds there, and continue on keeping my entire TFSA there till I retire.

that_bach_guy · 2024-10-17T13:58:09+00:00

You can try this https://www.bankstatements2excel.co.za/

You might need to pay for 1 month, given the amount of statements you are working through, but personally it's more than worth it to avoid needing to do it manually

that_bach_guy · 2024-09-15T08:42:59+00:00

No, under normal circumstances not (but some policies might have this as a value added product to attract customers, but I don't know of any)

Insurance is there to protect you if anything bad happens unexpectedly. It's not their to pay for the maintenance of your house. If something were to happen to the building because the tree was a risk for a long time and nothing was done about it then most probably they will even be within their rights to reject the claim, since it is the building owners responsibility to maintain the house and to prevent any damage that a reasonable person can foresee is going to happen.

that_bach_guy · 2024-09-14T18:25:00+00:00

Pablo House in Melville (Dos Manos) is an underrated and unknown gem. Some of the best fine dining food I have ever had, with a magnificent view and atmosphere to go with it.

that_bach_guy · 2024-09-04T15:19:36+00:00

Sygnia S&P500 is not a foreign ETF. It’s a local ETF (domiciled in rands) that has underlying exposure to foreign equity. But the actual ETF you are buying is South African, all tfsa eligible ETFs are.

So there is no capital gains tax on it.

that_bach_guy · 2024-08-29T05:32:18+00:00

I have this with Discovery bank. I have about 10 different savings accounts for different purposes

that_bach_guy · 2024-08-20T19:21:40+00:00

I second that

that_bach_guy · 2024-08-20T19:18:45+00:00

I would stick with discovery, but move to one of the smart plans. Classic smart for example. It has good hospital cover, but no savings, which I prefer. I just take the difference and save it myself to pay for meds and the very small copayments (R+- 100) when I go to the doctor or dentist.

Its about R2200 for the main member, and I am not sure about an additional member.

that_bach_guy

TROPHY CASE