Money Business

A Bidvest Call Account offer competitive interest rates and access to your funds when you need them, offers competitive interest rates for a minimum deposit of R1000 and access to your funds whenever you need them, usually within 24 hours.

Funds can be held in the account for an unlimited investment period and partial withdrawals and additional deposits can be made at any time. The interest rate is determined by the balance in the account and is calculated daily and capitalised monthly.

7 Day Call Account

From a minimum balance of R5000 up to a maximum of R1 million, an individual can earn a flat rate of 5% per year. Funds can be held in the 7 Day Call Account for an unlimited period. Partial withdrawals and additional deposits can be made at any time after the first 7 days, thereafter access is granted within 24 hours. The interest rate is calculated daily and is capitalised monthly.

The interest rate on the account will change in line with changes in the Prime lending rate determined by the South African Reserve Bank.

Call Account Interest Rates:

The Bidvest Cash Passport card offers the user all the security of a travellers cheques with the added convenience of plastic, this means travellers wont need to travel with cash on their person with the added convenience of just swiping a card.

Bidvest Bank’s Cash Passport card combines the security features of a traveller’s cheque with the convenience of a card to ensure that you do not carry large amounts of cash overseas. Cash Passport holds your foreign exchange at the rate it is purchased at and is also an ATM and debit card the can be used at millions of ATMs, stores, restaurants and hotels worldwide that display the Visa sign.

Bidvest Cash Passport Features:

• Currency is pre-loaded to minimise risk of overspending
• Debit card functionality
• ATM withdrawal functionality allows instant access to local currency
• Re-loadable at any time
• Fixed exchange rate at the time of purchase protects you from daily rate fluctuations
• PIN and signature protected for enhanced security
• 24 hour international emergency assistance for lost / stolen cards
• Available in US Dollars, Euros, Great British Pound, Australian Dollars

Legal requirements demand that listed companies and high profile organisations be audited to meet legal requirements and preferably at a value for money rate. Considering the fact that an audit is the most rigorous scrutiny your company might ever undergo, it is also an opportunity for the company to find out more about their business and the market that they’re in.

Currently, the Top Auditing Firms in South Africa are:

• Deloitte
• KPMG
• PWC
• Ernest & Young
• Grant Thornton
• BDO
• Accenture

The Cadiz Investments Money Market Fund aims to deliver high levels of income in excess of returns available through the fixed term deposits and call accounts offered by banking institutions, while providing investors with capital protection and the stability of monthly returns and liquidity. The average duration of the Fund may not exceed 90 days.

Key Money Market Fund Features:

• Inception Date – 1 March 2006
• Benchmark – SteFI Composite
• Sector – Domestic – Fixed Interest – Money Market
• Risk Profile – Low
• Asset Composition – Money market instruments
• Minimum Investments – Lump sum: R20 000 / Monthly: R1 000 / Ad hoc: R500
• Initial Fees – 0%
• Annual Management Fees – 0.25% (excluding VAT)
• Income Declaration – Monthly – 0.446745 cpu @ 30 September 2011
• Income Payment – 1st working day after declaration date
• Fund Size – R2.433 billion
• Fund Manager – Adré Smit

[...]

Allan Gray is a South African investment management company that offers numerous investment vehicles to individuals and institutions alike. Allan Grey’s focus is on long term relationship and long term investment returns and performance  for serious investors.

Some of Allan Gray’s largest clients include individuals, retirement funds, insurers, trusts, companies and foundations investing in Southern Africa. They do not focus size of assets under management, but rather the focus is on investment performance . Allan Gray has an international footprint through its association with the Orbis Group.

Allan Gray was founded both Allan Gray Proprietary Limited and the Orbis Group and Gray family interests continue to control both firms.

Allan Gray Investments offered include:

• Units Trusts
• Offshore Investments
• Retirement Investments
• Preservation Funds

Visit the website for more…

Due to the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project every Gauteng commuter will be required by law to pay to use the freeway. The implications of this range far beyond driving for point A to point B, but will reach even the poorest of the poor’s pockets.

Tax Director at Deloitte Billy Joubert has written a comprehensive piece of thought leadership to explain the implications on taxation that will touch our everyday lives. Joubert explains that currently employees do not receive relief for the costs of travelling to and from work, even though this is arguably incurred in the production of their taxable income.

This rule is quite harsh, believes Joubert, and can be seen to represent a departure of the basic principles of tax law. It becomes even harsher when people are obliged to incur such a significant additional expense.

Find out more…

MoneywebTex recently posted an article that I would like to share with you, it is a brilliant piece written for people who don’t understand or just don’t want to understand how tax works. So here it is, enjoy:

Suppose that every evening, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to R100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay R1. The sixth would pay R3. The seventh would pay R7. The eighth would pay R12. The ninth would pay R18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay R59. So, that’s what they decided to do…

The ten men drank in the bar every evening and were quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner said, “Since you are all such good customers, I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by R20″. Drinks for the ten men would now cost just R80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.

[...]

Oil Investing as daunting as it may sounds, does give investors quite a fews options to get involved in trading of oil shares each with its varying degrees of risk and range from direct investment in oil as a commodity, to indirect exposure in oil through the ownership of energy-related equities.

One direct method of owning oil is through the purchase of oil futures or oil futures options. Futures are highly volatile and involve a high degree of risk. Additionally, investing in futures may require the investor to do a lot of homework as well as invest a large amount of capital.

Another direct method of owning oil is through the purchase of commodity-based oil exchange-traded funds (ETFs). ETFs trade on a stock exchange and can be purchased and sold in a manner similar to stocks.

In addition, investors can gain indirect exposure to oil through the purchase of energy-sector ETFs, like the iShares Global Energy Sector Index Fund (PSE:IXC), and to energy-sector mutual funds, like the the T. Rowe Price New Era Fund (PRNEX). These energy-specific ETFs and mutual funds invest solely in the stocks of oil and oil services companies and come with lower risk.

Car Finance can be a tricky subject when you dont do your homework. The excitement and importance of the occasion often goes past the buyer and in the end he / she sits with a vehicle that they cannot afford and hates whilst owning it. Below are a few tips to help first time car buyers not make the sames mistakes as thousands before them.

1. Be cautious when choosing your new car
The biggest decision to influence what you pay each month is the type of car you will be driving! Used cars are often a much more affordable option as the previous owner has taken the hit on depreciation over the first couple of years. The cheaper the car, the less car finance required and in turn the less the monthly premiums. The price, size and type of the vehicle will also play a big part in the monthly insurance repayments.

2. Put down a bigger deposit
With interest rates rising putting a good deposit down on your new or used car will make a big difference to your monthly payment. The larger the intial deposit on your car, the lower the monthly premiums will be.

3. Pay as much as you can afford on monthly
Car finance can be organized for anything from 12 months to 5 years. The lower the period you choose, the more your monthly payment. Be careful however to compare your total payment over duration of the deal for different payment periods. Paying your new or used car off quickly will dramatically reduce your total spend.

4. Look out for extras
Often car finance deals include a host of other products. Make sure the finance consultant fully explains what you’re getting and what each item costs.

5. Ask about penalties
Pay careful attention to the terms of the loan. Make sure there are no penalties for paying your used or new car loan off early.

The top 10 Oil and Gas issues being faced by the market today was outlined by Deloitte’s online reality check series. They outlined an in depth document with the 10 most significant issues the the oil and gas sectors face in the 20th century.

These issues are outlined by the importance of these 10 issues to developing countries through the lack of renewable energy options. These 10 issues are:

1. Deep water drilling presses on with some real world caveats
2. Shale gas growth will deman new markets and growth in these new areas
3. The North Sea areas rise to importance will continue
4. Asian NOC are determined to acquire upstream assets in world markets
5. Established oil and gas companies stick to their knitting and leave the renewable energy options to the other players
6. Established companies look amongst themselves for potential business partners
7. Russia and China benefit from neighbours
8. China continues to grow its local gas supply capacity and do not look for imports to supply their market
9. Middle east experiences lack of domestic product supply
10. Asia exerts it pull on the global market

For these and other related topics, check out the Deloitte website.