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After another challenging year, many South Africans will be looking forward to taking some time off this holiday season to relax and celebrate. While this is an exciting time of the year, it is also a time when people tend to spend money impulsively. “Financially, consumers are already squeezed as the impact of COVID-19 on the economic environment lingers. The fuel price increase is also causing the cost of everything else, like groceries, to rise, placing significant pressure on wallets,” says Fayelizabeth Foster, Head of Loyalty and Rewards at Standard Bank. Many companies may not be able to pay out bonuses, which means that there may not be much room in people’s budgets for holiday spending. Foster cautions against taking on unnecessary debt during this time to buy goods, as this could put you on the backfoot financially in the new year. Standard Bank is encouraging customers to use their UCount Rewards Points to stretch their budgets over the holiday period. These Rewards Points ca...

Mobile phones and devices are playing a larger role in peoples’ lives than ever before. The Covid-19 outbreak has increased our reliance on smart devices, which can now be used to conduct almost every daily activity – from finding entertainment to organising meetings and schedules to keeping in touch with friends and family. This has also resulted in exponential increases in demand for data and internet access. “The smartphone is like a pocket-sized personal computer,” says Lee Ramsden: Head Sales and Distribution of Standard Bank Mobile. “It travels with us wherever we go, and facilitates access to information, and important services like banking, healthcare and education. Smart devices and internet access have become a critical component of the modern world; nowadays, everyone needs to be connected to participate in an increasingly interconnected world.”  Ramsden says that in the last 18 months, the number of customers signing up to Standard Bank Mobile, which ties in device and ...

In the current Covid-19 environment, connectivity has proved more critical than ever. With the accelerated transfer of social interaction, education, and commerce from the physical to the virtual world, demand for online capabilities has skyrocketed, fuelling dramatic increases in network traffic and data usage. This shift to doing everything online has seen companies across almost every industry fast-track their digital transformation efforts. But access to connectivity is required in driving adoption of digitalised services. The growing demand for online communication, streaming and education has lifted demand for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). Various companies across sectors including financial services are collaborating with network providers to unlock added value for customers, and to enable connectivity to digitalised services that now form a critical part of our everyday lives.  What is a MVNO? MVNOs are companies that do not own a mobile network but rent capacit...

These days we all are in search of devices and products that make life better, whether at work, home or play. Samsung’s range of products are designed to achieve this and so much more. There is therefore great news for those wanting to purchase a must-have device or home appliance. Samsung and Standard Bank have partnered to offer customers 0% interest on all Samsung products bought using a Standard Bank credit card, from the Samsung Online Store at  https://shop.samsung.com/za/financing .   “We are committed to offering the best of Samsung innovation and an ecosystem of incredible experiences to more people. Now through Standard Bank and this exciting collaboration, we can bring even more added value and convenience to those who choose the power of cutting-edge technology to enhance the quality of their daily lives, “said Kagiso Khaole, Head of e-commerce and Services at Samsung South Africa   You can now purchase from the Samsung online store starting from R5000.00 or m...

Changes in computing take significant leaps forward, and it is interesting to observe the progress over 15-year cycles writes Ian Doyle Standard Bank Group Head: Employee Experience Engineering    In 1981 IBM introduced the first personal computer, code-named “Acorn”. It used Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system. It had an Intel chip, two floppy disks, and an optional colour monitor. It started the shift to placing computers within reach of many users.    Rolling forward 15 years, Sergey Brin and Larry Page developed the Google search engine at Stanford University. They laid the foundation for democratising access to information and in so doing, shaped the modern internet.    In 2010, Apple unveiled the iPad. Changing how we viewed media and jumpstarting the tablet device computer segment. It also set the base for devices to serve both work and personal needs in a unique form, making mobility the norm.   Shifts such as these have brought technology with...

Phillip Moepya - Group Head - Experience Design at Standard Bank Group Socrates said, “Change is inevitable, so the best thing we can do is plan for it.” It’s a great sentiment but not many people in the world could have prepared for COVID-19 and the profound changes it has ushered in.   From a digital point of view the foundations needed to manage the accelerated reliance on technology, which we have experienced in 2020 have been laid over the last few years. Even before COVID-19 broadband connectivity and fibre-to-the-home have become more pervasive and many businesses have taken their offerings online to open themselves up to global markets.  The retail sector has embraced online services and e-commerce was already enjoying fruitful growth by the end of 2019. Then COVID-19 arrived, shifting consumer behaviour seismically.  Governments around the world and in Africa have been very directional and instructional in saying people need to stay at home and social distance....

  Consumers shied away from cash and gravitated towards digital payment solutions during the national lockdown according to statistics from Standard Bank’s card division.     South Africans were asked to stay at home  between  April and September 2020, and this sudden change in circumstance was mirrored by changes in the way consumers spent their money.  Over the six-month period, 20% of all credit card transactions by Standard Bank customers were done online –  while 17% were contactless payments  (against a 7% baseline pre-lockdown) – meaning the purchases were made using tap-to-pay or via a mobile device. Contactless payments have continued to rise month on month and we expect the trend to continue.   “We witnessed a dramatic shift in behaviour around payments during the lockdown period. With concerns over  COVID-19 , consumers opted to make payments via online banking and our mobile app banking or by using the tap-to-pay functio...

 The shift away from cash and towards digital and contactless payment methods has been accelerated by the pandemic. This, Standard Bank believes, will remain at elevated levels, and continue to grow under the new normal.   “Digital payments have now become a critical service,” says Ethel Nyembe, Head: Card and Payments, Standard Bank Group. “They allow for commerce to continue while reducing the risk of physical interaction and infection. We know that we will be living with the risk of Covid-19 for a long time to come and need to find ways to continue with life despite it.”    In 2018, Standard Bank launched Africa’s first prepaid and co-branded virtual card that can be loaded in real time from any account that a customer has with Standard Bank. The card is accessible on the Standard Bank mobile app, where it can be created – at no extra charge – and topped up on a regular basis.  Standard Bank customers can then use the virtual card to  make purchases onli...