Saving money became more popular than ever last year, with UK households saving an all-time high of 29.1% of their income. The Covid-19 outbreak led to lockdown measures and business closures worldwide, which prompted people to drastically reduce their spending, leaving them with more money to put towards savings. Moreover, lack of job security and uncertainty about the future has made increasingly more people rethink their finances and realise the importance of setting some money aside.
UK households aren’t alone in this: household savings have increased steadily since 2013 in most countries around the globe. In the United States, the total savings deposits of American households has doubled since 2010, reaching its peak of $10.91 trillion last April. At the same time, however, a report from the non-profit AARP found that 51% of American don’t have any emergency savings whatsoever, partially because they don’t know how to save money.
Long gone are the days when offering a savings account was enough, and both banks and insurers are starting to realise this and to vary their product offering in order to reach new demographics and strengthen their connection with current customers. It is no longer about offering customers the possibility to put their money into a set account with a set interest rate, but about understanding their savings goals and helping them throughout their savings journey.
Individuals now have a general interest in saving money and taking control of their finances digitally. However, a lot of people tend to struggle with building up their savings, particularly millennials and gen Z. Low interest rates and lack of information around how much they should save and how exactly they can start saving play a part in keeping them demotivated and unwilling to set money side. That is why they need an easy and engaging platform that allows them to save money even without realising.
Offering user-friendly savings platforms that are customisable and easy to understand can help banks, insurers and retailers emotionally connect with the customer and build their sense of trust and loyalty to the company. Customers know that saving money is an ongoing and challenging process, so the most effective way for them to build up their savings balance is through small, reachable steps.
Imburse has developed a straightforward and easy-to-use MicroSavings platform to help you help your customers save money. Our main mission is to make payments easier and faster, whilst giving companies the freedom to expand globally. With our MicroSavings, you can not only make seamless payment transactions anywhere in the world, but be a part of your customers’ savings journeys and build long-lasting connections with them.
With our MicroSavings platform, you can set up as many saving programmes as you want for your customers, and edit them according to your customers’ preferences. The platform is highly customisable, so you can set up the tracking configuration as well as dynamic saving rules that your customers can choose from. These rules are based on behaviour and payment habits and include, for example, saving 10% of every transaction or rounding up their spending to the nearest pound. Different customers have different preferences, so allowing customers to personalise their savings rules is an incredibly valuable preposition.
After customers have selected their saving rule, they can link it to an existing card and start saving immediately. They will be notified via SMS of how much they have spent and saved over a certain period of time, which allows them to better monitor their spending whilst keeping motivated to continue their savings journey. Essentially, our MicroSavings platform offers an easy, stress-free and timesaving plan for your customers to save money successfully.
The financial services industry is now driven by innovative ideas and state-of-the-art technology. As financial enterprises and banks continue to push the boundaries of innovation, that leaves customers expecting a high level of creativity and effectiveness from the services they get. If they don’t find them in your company, they will find them somewhere else. As it turns out, saving money can actually be an easy and enjoyable task, so there couldn’t be a better time for companies to show this to their customers.
If you have any questions regarding our MicroSavings platforms and would like to discuss further, please reach out to us here. Our expert team is always happy to help you, and would love to show you what this platform can do for your business and your customers.