Banks and apps are developing painless savings solutions to allow all budgets to put a little money aside every month. Focus on one of them, savings rounding.
You may be familiar with solidarity rounding, which involves rounding up your card purchases to the next euro and donating the difference to a charity… But have you heard of savings rounding?
Based on the same system, it consists of rounding up your purchases to the next euro and transferring the difference to another account, which belongs to you, in order to build up a small savings pot.
Offered by banks and apps
This savings method is offered by some banks (LCL, monabanq, revolut, etc.) and several smartphone applications (Plum and Goin). Depending on the service, there are several possibilities: the money can be transferred to a sort of virtual piggy bank that is not remunerated but simply serves to put money aside, or it can be placed in a classic savings account (livret A, ldds).
Last option, more profitable but also riskier, the money can be invested in stocks, bonds or cryptocurrencies.
In concrete terms, if you buy a baguette for 1.1 euros, you will actually be charged two euros and 90 cents will be directly saved. If you use the service offered by LCL, you will only be charged twice a month: every 15 days, the application adds up the amount of the roundings on the payments made during the two preceding weeks, and debits the account for the sum.
A hundred euros per year
The amounts saved obviously depend on the frequency of payments you make, but they are never very high, since they never exceed 99 cents per payment. You will therefore save, in this way, on average 100 euros per year.
It’s certainly not much, but the painless nature of the operation makes it particularly attractive to people on tight budgets who find it difficult to save every month.
However, do not expect to make a profit solely with this savings solution: the small amount saved means that you will only earn very little interest (barely one euro at the end of a year by saving 100 euros via rounding up on a Livret A account).
Original savings solutions
If you think that these amounts are too low, know that banks and applications almost all offer solutions that allow you to save a little more: round up to the next five euros for each expense, or save a percentage of the amount of each purchase.
But be careful, with these two options, savings grow much faster and you run the risk of finding yourself overdrawn. To be reserved for those who have perfect control over their budget.
Budget management apps like Plum and Goin go further, offering, for example, to withhold a percentage of any money coming into your account, or to analyze your income and expenses to be able to set aside the ideal amount based on your finances.
Plum even offers an even more… original savings solution: it lets you put money aside automatically every time it rains. Handle with caution if you are from Normandy or Brittany.
