Absa unveils New Card Designs, including Metal cards, in a re-energised Value-for-money Proposition #AbsaCard

Hi Guys, 

Launches first-of-its-kind augmented reality card game offering prizes and giveaways to customers and non-customers with incentives for transactional and credit card account takeup.

What is a bank card? Is it simply a card or a bridge to benefits, a stepway to the day-to-day amenities or a highway to the attainment of life’s greater goals? In a world where the margins of choice are ever-evolving Absa is making the guesswork simpler, unlocking a gateway to value with new chic black and smart-metal card offerings. It’s about fostering the hopes and dreams of our customers smartly as we pursue our purpose of empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together… one story at a time. It’s about the next step in a journey of creating the best value-for-money in banking for over nine million South African customers.

That journey is re-energised today with the launch of brand-new card designs that were co-created with over 2000 customers and frontline staff. Furthermore, Absa is also promoting a digital experience with its new cards with the launch of an innovative augmented reality game, Card Quest, through which existing and non-Absa customers can win great prizes and incentives for a transactional account or credit card takeup. Players collect virtual cards at various locations or swop with other participants to complete the series. Customers and non-customers can find information on Absa’s website absa.co.za and should follow Absa’s social media pages for further communication.

“As consumers and captains of our destinies, we always strive to transcend the conventional, we want the ability to make choices and have experiences that will add meaningful value to our lives and elevate us to a next-level lifestyle. Next-level banking is designed to help you achieve that and much more. More safe and secure banking through a range of superior digital payments including contactless payments, that continue to attract customer confidence so much so that Absa’s digital payments segment grew 154% in the first six months of this year, supported by our best-in-class capabilities and Digital Fraud Warranty. Our bank card is also a gateway to Absa’s best value for money banking,” said Christine Wu, Managing Executive: Consumer Product, Absa Everyday Banking.

Absa transactional and credit card cardholders enjoy the following value-for-money benefits:

• Full-service banking packages incorporating a gold or premium credit card with zero monthly fees and free embedded life cover of up to R 25 000
• Your spouse banks for 50% discount and your children bank for free
• Up to 57 days interest-free on qualifying credit card purchases
• No transaction fees on credit card swipes
• Unlimited Digital Fraud Warranty
• Innovative digital payment options including Absa’s first-to-market affordable PayShap payments
• Absa Rewards, now available free of charge to all customers
• Earn up to 30% real cash back on fuel, health and beauty and grocery purchases at Absa Rewards partners
• More rewards for smart banking on completion of embedded banking behavioural challenges in the Absa Banking App
• Travel benefits include free airport lounge access and up to R3 million in free travel insurance
• Buyers’ protection and extended warranty on your purchases
• Free Currency Investment Accounts on Gold Value Bundle and Premium packages

“We empower our customers, one story at a time but enable the small day-to-day things, one tap at a time. Our new card design integrates the rich meaning of our purpose and the powerful proposition in a single manifestation,” Wu added.

The new card face is embossed with an African basket weave design, a powerful representation of Absa’s interconnected pan-African presence and will be issued across segments - youth and entry-level through to wealth clients. Smart-metal cards will initially be available to Private Banking and Wealth clients with availability to other segments considered for a later stage. Absa has also fully switched to vertical cards. Absa’s digital cards on the Mobile Banking App will also be updated with the new design. “We recognise that cards are shifting to the mobile environment. Many of our customers already use digital payment methods for 80% of their transactions, said Wu.

Additional value for money transactional benefits since January 2023, following a further R500m pricing relief support created for customers:

Absa Rewards Now Free for Everyone

• The Absa Rewards monthly fee of R23.20 has been waived, making it free for all Absa Rewards customers.
• New and exciting enhancements to the programme were introduced in early 2023 for primary banked customers, who will receive superior value from Absa Rewards.

Youth and Students Continue to Bank for Free

• Absa Student and youth accounts still carry zero monthly fees and continue to benefit from free embedded benefits such as 100mb free data per month and free vouchers.
• In addition to unlimited free Absa ATM Cash withdrawals, Mega U customers who bank digitally with Absa will further benefit from 90% cheaper Digital Payments and External Debit Orders.

Unrivalled Benefits for Absa Transact customers

• Absa Transact customers continue to benefit from R5 000 free lump-sum death benefit and with zero monthly fee increases in 2023.

Major Relief for Flexi Account customers

• Flexi Account customers will benefit from the following price reductions: 
• Till-point withdrawals - Now free (Previously R2.00)
• Debit Card Swipes – R1.00 per transaction (Previously R4.00)
• Digital Payments – R1.00 per transaction (Previously R10.00)
• External Debit Orders – R3.50 per transaction (Previously R10.00)
• Customers continue to get unrivalled value with a free R15 000 lump-sum death benefit included as part of their monthly fee worth over R90.00pm.

I have recently switched to Absa Credit Card and my application has been approved as well. I have to collect my credit cards from the Sandton City branch which I intend to do soon and then I will see how much rewards I can collect with Absa. 

Aum Namah Shivay!

Till next time...Aashish
Thanks! Cheers!!!
https://linktr.ee/thelifesway

Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for historical tech, new gadgets, stationery, product reviews
and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay Link to all social media platforms - https://t.co/gUHjo8DQ7h
Your Lifestyle and Technology Blog for the Last 10.5 Years!

#MakeItHappen - Spend less and save more with Lumia Apps

Hi Guys, 

How are you tracking against your goals for 2015 so far? It requires a persistence effort to do so and smartphones these days helps us do so with their apps. Improving finances was the most popular goal from the survey results conducted by Microsoft South Africa because financial freedom is ultimately what we are all aiming to achieve. To help you achieve this goal, here is a list of some great apps from the Windows Phone store to help you better manage your finances and accomplish those goals set out for this year.

Spending Tracker (Free) 

Spending Tracker is the easiest and most user friendly Personal Finance App in the store. And best of all, it's free. The simple fact is, by tracking your spending you will be able to stick to a budget and therefore SAVE MONEY. This app helps you track your spending quickly and easily and it also offers an option of choosing to track weekly, monthly and yearly. So give it a try and have instant control over your spending.

Budget Buddy (Free)
A multi-functional expense tracker and budget manager featuring the ability to track expenses by taking a photo. Just snap a picture of your bill, receipt, cash register total, or whatever is available when you are making a purchase. No fumbling around with your phone while you are paying your bill or checking out. The Live Tile feature makes it easy to track your spending and manage your budget. You can know exactly how much you've spent and how much is left in your monthly budget simply by looking at the live tile on your home screen.

My Budget (R9.99) 

My Budget is an easy solution to balance your accounts, track your expenditure, and manage your money and more. As a personal finance application one can enter receipts, assign each transaction to a category and to an account. My Budget day view, week view and month view gives you quick snap shot of your pending and upcoming activities.

Money Wallet (R23.99)
Money Wallet is a simple, useful and intuitive personal finance assistant with online synchronization between several devices. The application combines all your accounts in one place, monitors budgets and always reminds you about scheduled transactions.

Financial freedom is what we all have to achieve and work towards. It keeps us happy and ensures our living continues as per our lifestyle for the times to come. A lot of books and websites are made to teach and guide those who seek the same. Keep looking and learn from them and finally do execute those ideas.

Cheers!!!

Follow me on twitter @araijain or @thelifesway  

Email - thelifesway@gmail.com   for invites to launch events / sponsored posts and product reviews!

Checkout my Instagram (araijain) page 

Checkout my photo blog - www.photoyatra.blogspot.in  

Like The Life's Way Page on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheLifesWay

Book Review - From the Rat Race to Financial Freedom by Manoj Arora

Hi Friends,

Rat race to Financial freedom is not a book, it's a journey. It is my dream to attain financial freedom one day and this book brought me so much closer to my goal in terms of mentoring & guiding me to become one, the rest depends on my intent and efforts I put in to do the same. This book is definitely different from all the books I have read on this topic by various international writers but I have never felt that connected with the author ever. The experience of reading this book written by Shri Manoj Arora is amazing as the book is his journey to achieve financial freedom and sharing the same with all of us. In a nutshell, it's combination of all the knowledge collected from various sources and reproduced in a way so that a common man like me feels motivated to achieve my dream of attaining financial freedom. I am really thankful to JAICO Publishing House for printing the book and pricing the same at Rs. 299/- only. This is a must have book if you ever want to come out of rat race of jobs, stress, shortage of time etc.

In my opinion, I have never agreed more with any writer on the way, book has been progressed. This might be possible that I myself was looking for ways to be financially free or it's his style of writing. The author's style of writing is very simple so that his words reaches masses. The way he has explained financial and technical terms is really great. The whole story behind the book and the journey thereafter is written in a hopeful & motivating style. You never feel that you can't achieve the same yourself while reading the book, which I have never experienced with all the other books I have read.

Let's me review the book as per the Index and also what I have learned and where I need more help from the writer via his website – http://www.ratrace2freedom.com There is no fees to access this website, even if you have not purchased the book and can directly seek his advice & guidance on your way to achieve financial freedom. Also all the excel templates created by him in his financial freedom journey are also available to download for free. Due to this half the battle is won as we kept postponing things based on the amount of hardwork it requires to create several headings & sections of an excel and never satisfied with the way our excel looks or works. This is surely a sure shot path laid out by the author and I really appreciate all of his efforts.

The book is broadly divided into 8 sections.

Introduction and Overview – This section covers the idea to be financially free as and when it came in the mind of the writer and what factors motivated him to go for the same? It's his journey and the way he visualized it.

1. Wealth Myths – This is the section where writer breaks our age old myths about money and investments. The best thing he said is we don't require any fancy degrees to achieve Financial freedom but just the dream and passion to achieve the same.

2. Technical concepts in Financial Independence – This sections deals with some of the basic financial formulas and terminologies required to understand financial freedom. This section deals with calculating the returns based on your investments as per different scenarios and some investment rules like Dollar Cost Averaging and Rule of 72.

3. Financial Investment Tools –This section covers all the types of Investment opportunities available in India. He also explains the pros and cons of investing in those investment tools e.g. PF, PPF, VPF, Gold, Stocks, Mutual Funds, Real Estate etc. This section really is an eye opener to many of us as we continue to put all our money in one basket which will be taxed heavily later. He explains all of these tools with relevant examples from his own life and how to create a perfect bouquet of benefits out of all of these investment tools.

4. Principles of Wealth Accumulation – This section covers some of the knowledge which he has acquired through wide reading and from working in different environments across the Globe. He has summed up the knowledge which he has gained in all these years of his existence for us. I loved this section because it really made me jump out of my bed to make a plan for myself. I really felt resonated with all the learning as I was able to reflect it with my life. I did my engineering in 2001 but I am nowhere near financial freedom as lost some years due to learning decisions of my life and started working in 2007. 6 years is what I want to cover with the help of this book & adding on the time till 2013 which is again 6 years – I have a lot to make up for.
 

Reproducing some part of the Index for reader's benefit -

1. Have a strong reason
2. Decide to become Wealthy
3. Start Early
4. Unleash the power of Compounding
5. Get rid of credit cards
6. Sharpen your financial saw
7. Stop Procrastinating, get started
8. Invest regularly
9. Keep your partner informed
10. Win in the margins

These are some of the learning and all of them are explained in a unique style and you will learn them very quickly as author comes up with his life examples.

5. Financial Freedom Planning and Tracking – This section is the main part where you need to actually get down to work. This section is more about doing and execution. This is the main part of the book if you want to achieve the financial freedom. If you just want to read through and no action taken will leave you with nothing in the end. The author has divided the process in 8 simple steps but this journey takes lifelong for many of us. I had to read through this section without actually getting down to work but as soon as I post my review of the book, I am gonna spend coming weekend downloading all the excels from author's website http://www.ratrace2freedom.com and charting out a path for my own Financial Independence. These 70 pages section is the summary of author's many years of hard work and learning put in front of you so that you achieve your dreams. At this juncture of my review, I remember words of Swami Vivekananda, “Arise, Awake and Stop not till the Goal is reached”.

6. Saving on Taxes – This section tells you about safeguarding your income & cash flows from the teeth of tax. He tells you various ways to save some tax through different Sections of Income Tax. As Income Tax is a very big field so he has covered some of the relevant topics only.

7. Before Calling it a Day – This section helps you decide on when to say bye to your job as you are fully confident that you have achieved your goal of Financial Freedom.

8. Go For It – These section deals with the feeling and confidence it gives you once you are Financially free. Author shares his experiences and wants the same for us too.

Glossary – All the financial terms are explained as a part of this section.

I would definitely give 5/5 stars for this book as author has shared all of his knowledge & experience so that we too can achieve what we set out for! This book is definitely better than reading some International Authors which explains things as per USA or UK economies. This book is for all Indians dreaming to achieve FINANCIAL FREEDOM!!!
 

Cheers!!!

Contact me for your product's review on twitter @araijain or @thelifesway or email - thelifesway@gmail.com

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7905347/?claim=ne8n89ckwhn">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>