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Discovery Managing Director Adrian Gore
Perhaps the only one Real surprise at Discovery Bank's public disclosure yesterday was the lack of any price information. The bank, which is expected to open to the public in March of the following year, is based on the key elements of the Vitality incentive and reward program, as it has long been suspected.
Discovery CEO Adrian Gore describes it as the first "behavioral" bank in the world. Simply put, it is based on "making people healthier, but in economic terms," says Gore. It lists five controlled behaviors linked to three risks that account for 80% of the reasons why people are not meeting their financial obligations.
Using a new flavor of the Vitality Money framework, Discovery Bank will encourage and encourage behavioral change as well as health and driving.
Although it counts and encourages these behaviors, it is not equal. In other words, you do not have to be insured through Discovery, for example, to get good results on the criterion of "driving behavior". On the contrary, it is important that you are insured.
These behaviors result in a Vitality Money situation (in the same known Blue to Diamond scale), which then translates into three rewards: dynamic interest rates for both borrowing and savings, enhanced Vitality rewards and weekly Active Rewards for responsible spending. Depending on your situation, you could get an interest rate up to the market rate less five or six percentage points for the debt and up to the market rate plus three percentage points for savings. On the Vitality Reward side, customers will see their Vitality Best Rewards, depending on the status of Vitality Money. For example, a discount of up to 35% on local flights to partner airlines can be upgraded to 75%. The same applies to all Vitality partners. All of this – interest rates and benefits – are totally dynamic and change based on your daily behavior.
Basic proposal
The basic proposal is the Discovery 1 account. This is a "merger" of a credit card and transaction account (which is no different from the fusion accounts launched by FNB and Absa in recent years) and has a built-in Life-saving Account. Gore would not receive any fees or prices, saying only that this aspect would be "market-related". One could certainly expect that prices will range between R100-odd and R400 / R500 per month, based on market pricing. Like other banks, depending on your income, you will receive either a golden, platinum or signature (black) card. These will be available differently, with different features and benefits.
Gore says that although the bank is under the leadership of the mobile, it has full retail functionality. It will have only one branch – at the central office of the Discovery Place group – which will open next year. Like other banks without physical imprints such as Investec, customers will be able to use any ATM or network of point-of-sale marketers to withdraw cash and make deposits.
The bank focuses on its implementation, which is a slick (at least indicated), and features innovations such as taking pictures and adding them to transactions as they have been. This is stored in the Discovery Document Treasure for later retrieval.
Taking advantage of the scale available to Discovery, it also allows you to pay anyone in your contacts using only the mobile phone number. It will use the data already in its ecosystem to associate names and contact numbers to authenticate these payments behind the scenes. This is different from other banks, which will simply send an SMS to the other number without real authentication.
Payments to other accounts, be it Discovery or not, can be direct. And while other banks offer similar services, there are sometimes restrictions around working hours and come at a steep price (average R40 purchase / payment). Discovery says direct payments will cost R5 at Discovery 1 and will be free at Discovery 1 Plus (its top package).
Discovery innovates to all partners of Clicks and Dis-Chem healthcare providers and will allow seamless payments to the drug delivery counter. Because Discovery knows what your medical assistance plan is and whether the payment will be made from your healthcare bill or not, the transaction will automatically be settled in the background and you will be able to exit the door.
It will upgrade airport lounges next year and 2020 (will focus on other banks) and extend the popular and successful advantage of Active Rewards with Apple Watch to an "Active Rewards with iPhone" advantage that will allow you to fund one new iPhone for free if you reach your weekly spending goals. We promise more information about these two things in the New Year.
The team was somehow forced to make a public launch in front of the bank to be open to new customers. It will conduct a beta test using 3,000 employees and selected affiliates in the next four months. So far, he has tried alpha with a very limited number of people (just 50) under the supervision of the South African Bank.
Upgrading & # 39;
As soon as the bank opens in March 2019, its existing 300,000 Discovery Card customers will be able to upgrade to Discovery 1.
The change proposal will be promoted in the New Year, with Discovery Bank Managing Director Barry Hore saying "every focal point has been centered" and that he has great technology on his sleeve.
Gore says there will be "strong incentives to earn your salary," but that the bank will play in the "primary and secondary accounts". He sees the market-oriented market, as virtually anyone who can withstand private health care. The "sweet spot" is apparently Discovery's current customers, which amount to a total of two million adults.
As part of next year's launch, Discovery plans to sell 10% of bank shares to depositors of black banks. The details of this project are still being processed but will be financed by the seller without risk to customers. Gore describes it as a "very good thing" and suggests that he could also use this justice to "lead behavior".
Discovery Bank will not offer home loans or car finance, at least not for the foreseeable future. Gore says he "can not yet see a huge differentiator." The bank also deliberately restricts its integration with other group products such as Invest (obvious), insurance and life. This will come.
- This article was first published in MoneyWeb and is used here with permission
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