Roughly one year ago I joined Revolut Banking as I has very few options left open to myself with regard to off shore banking. All the other banking options wanted $120K or $500K minimum balance deposits which Revolut did not require. Banking in South Africa is fine for the local currency being the Rand which you earn and pay taxes on, but not bringing foreign currencies into the country.
The Rand is on a depreciating slide and has been for many years with no hope oof returning to the glory years of single digits versus the USD, GBP or EURO. Last month the Rand was hovering around R16 to the Dollar and is now over R16.50. This you may think sounds like very little when in reality that is a 3% loss in buying power.
8th May 2020 Rand reaches R19.26 against the dollar. This is more than enough reason to never exchange a good currency for a bad one and the Rand is bad expecting to decline in value.
Last night Revolut reminded me of the points that have been accumulating and being a debit card often in use then yes points add up very fast. I am not a big online shopper like the rest of my family so it makes me less impulsive so I see the value in the airline miles and the hotel bookings only.
The option of converting points for an Amazon Gift Voucher exchanging a
£428 face value for £153 makes little or no logic and why would anyone think they have got a great deal? The rewards may be free, but you have also earned them so make sure you get the full value. The airline miles are not quite a full return ticket to Europe so by this time next year that would be at least 75% or 80% off on two return tickets so from my end there is no rush to blow them now.
To think all the years (decades) I have had banking and I have got Sweet FA from any of them and an online bank in less than 12 months has been more generous than all of them put together. The savings account is also a great feature with compounding being offered with interest paid daily and for one I need to take more advantage of this deal.
With the Durban house sale plus another bag of money we never quite knew we had we will be opening another off shore account as back up to the Revolut account for just in case not relying on only one bank. This was my problem last year having all my banking tied to one institution which they closed that service after more than 30 years and I need to have other options in the future.
Funny how like spins you all these curved balls and we tend to always find a way to overcome them through necessity. 12 months ago I was spending 4 days in Dubai negotiating a bank account and sorting out a crypto off ramp for the future so I am grateful that has been sorted.