Piggyvest — crypto saving vs traditional saving

Everyone tells you the key to financial freedom is investing, and if you’ve been searching for a worthwhile platform to invest in, you’ve probably come across Piggyvest and the cryptocurrency investment platform Remicash. Both do things two things at the base level; help you save money and earn interest on what you’ve saved.

Under the hood, there’s a lot more going on, enough to make each distinct from the other and, more importantly, fitting to peculiar consumer needs. Which one fits you best?

Remicash
In 2021, Remicash started as a crypto savings and investment platform with the core motive of introducing users to the frontier of global finance and economics — cryptocurrency. If you’ve heard about cryptocurrency, you’ve probably heard about crypto-trading, and you’ve also most likely heard about just how volatile the market is. Remicash provides a safehaven where the everyday consumer can invest and earn cryptocurrencies without exposing themselves to the risks and volatility of the market.

But above and beyond just earning cryptocurrencies, Remicash acts as a ladder to reaching financial goals. Specifically;

It shields your monetary assets from devaluation
The time-based value of money eventual catches up with all forms of cash savings. Today in 2021, NGN 10,000 is worth less than it was five years ago. This trend of money-losing value with time is an almost certain component of the financial market, more so in many African countries where inflation rises yearly by double digits. Because Remicash pools your investments in dollar and dollar-pegged assets, your money is insulated from the overreaching influence of inflation and devaluation.

Cryptocurrencies represent the future of digital money, and by default, the best ones of them are deflationary. In practice, what Remicash does is grant you a double-edged sword that leverages the dollar’s performance against devaluation and capitalizes on the deflationary nature of cryptocurrencies.

You can start small and work your way up
Remicash allows you to open a zero-balance account, so you don’t need to deposit money to get the hang of how things work in the first instance. There’s also no peg on how much you can save, which means you can start small and then work your way to bigger saving sums and, eventually, goals. Note that to earn on your savings, you need to have at least $10 deposited.

You get competitive interest rates
Virtually all banks and fintech institutions offer one savings plan or the other (we’ll get into that of PiggyVest in a bit). However, most of those savings plans come with unattractive interest rates of the kind that proffers no actual value when you consider the time-based depreciation of money.

Remicash offers competitive interest rates that can be as high as 36% p.a. And because this is interest pooled up in dollar and crypto assets, it’s also interest that’s resistant to devaluation.

Single exchange rates on both deposits and withdrawals
If you’ve tried to save in USD before, you probably have noticed what we like to call the ‘double exchange rate phenomenon.’ That is exchange rates to the dollar that change based on whether you’re depositing into a savings platform or withdrawing out of it.

Usually, when you’re depositing, the rate is higher — meaning you pay more to the dollar. When you’re withdrawing, the rate is lower relative to the deposit rate. This is all to say that you’re being shortchanged; you pay more and get less.

Remicash operates a True exchange rate that’s the same whether you’re depositing or withdrawing, ensuring that you get your savings’ ‘true’ value.

No monthly fees
Remicash doesn’t take any cuts out of your savings as monthly fees (it’s why they can operate zero accounts). The absence of monthly expenses is always a nice feature because while they might seem innocuous at first, they can accumulate into humongous sums, and fast.

Ideally, you want a savings platform that helps you keep money, not take away the bulk of it as fee payments.

Multiple savings plans
Savings plans and financial goals of the future differ by the individual and the circumstance. For instance, someone who needs to buy a new phone will have a financial goal (and savings plan) entirely different from someone who needs to buy an expensive asset, say a house. For the latter, you need a savings plan that’s both profitable, long term, and perhaps more importantly, one that helps you lock up the funds so you don’t fall to financial temptations.

Remicash is ideal for multiple savings needs because it has several custom-tailored savings plans that address specific consumer needs. The three main ones are:

§ The Target plan with an interest rate of 9%

§ Stable lock plan with an interest rate of 15%

§ Save4Bitcoin plan with an interest rate of 36%

Note that for now only the Save4Bitcoin plan is live on the Remicash web platform. All other saving plans will go live once the Remicash app is released.

We’ve talked about what’s good on Remicash. Now let’s switch over to what’s bad because, like every other savings/investment platform, it has its shortcomings, namely:


There’s a risk in dealing with cryptocurrencies
While it’s true that Remicash turns away from traditional trading and staking in cryptocurrencies and the associated volatility and risk that come with these, your investments are still subject to some risk. Why? Because cryptocurrency is still a developing field and until the sector becomes fully established, there will be up and downs. These ups and downs, depending on their magnitude, can affect the value of your assets, specifically the interests you’ve earned on saved assets.

$10 minimum to be eligible for daily interest
Remicash doesn’t have a deposit cap; you can start with a zero-account balance — True. Note, however, that to be eligible for daily interests paid on top of your savings, you must have a minimum account value of $10.

No mobile app
If you’re like most people, you’ll want a handy mobile application on your phone that’s capable of handling your savings profile, sending you updates, that kind of stuff. Sadly, Remicash is web app only, so everything you do has to be through your mobile browser.

PiggyVest
PiggyVest was one of the first fintech apps to democratize automated savings in Nigeria. Before them, saving money was challenging and required interfacing with conventional banks and their notorious fees and hidden charges.

As one of the frontiers in digital easy-to-use saving architecture, they have the experience and the capability, a fact that’s well reflected in the advantages they have over other digital investment and savings platforms.

What do you get from PiggyVest? A lot, actually. Let’s look at the best of the bunch.

No minimum opening balance
Like Remicash, you don’t have to deposit any money to own a working savings/investment account with PiggyVest. Everyone gets a zero balance account that’s fully functional, so you can see how it all works.

No minimum deposits also means you can start saving from as low an amount as you have — NGN5000, NGN10000, your choice. Better still, you earn interest on this amount no matter how small it pans out to be, neat.

Like their name connotes, PiggyVest — Piggybank, the goal is encouraging you to save regardless of how much you can spare. With time, you can always scale this up.

Very competitive interest rates
PiggyVest gets you up to 12.6% p.a interest rates on money saved. That’s a high number, certainly higher than what any Nigerian bank offers.

Feature-full banking
Piggyvest is more than an investment platform; it’s a microfinance bank with full-on banking features. As a result, you get a virtual account number, the ability to send to other bank accounts and many other extra banking features you’d not normally find on an investment app.

Multiple savings plans
On Piggyvest, you can choose from five personalized savings plans:

§ Piggybank
which allows you to set up a custom savings plan on your terms. Think of it as a blank slate for savings that enables you to define how you want to save based on your needs and resources.

§ Safelock
Safelock works like traditional fixed deposits. You deposit a particular, have it locked up for a specified period and then get paid plus interest only after that period has expired.

§ Targets
The Targets plan is for when you have a financial target. Cowrywise allows you to specify that target before defining the savings modalities required to meet said target.

§ Flex Naira
if you wanted to save and still enjoy unfettered access to your money, Piggyvest’s Flex Naira plan attends to that need.

§ Flex Dollar
As the name implies, the Flex Dollar plan lets you save in USD but not just USD, Euros as well.


Apparently, there’s a savings plan for almost every consumer need, a reason many people are fans of Piggyvest.

Interest rates and fees
The interest rates on Piggyvest vary by saving plan. However, you can get as high as 12.6% on select savings plans, and that’s a high enough rate in the circumstance, especially for traditional investment platforms.

Like Remicash, fees are almost non-existent, so your savings only go up and not down over time. Almost because Piggyvest charges flat rates for interbank transfers when you attempt to withdraw your earnings. But then again, this is the norm with traditional banking institutions.

Low-risk
Mutual funds, index funds, Flex Dollar and all the other savings plans available on the Piggyvest platform are very low-risk. That’s another way of saying you’re almost 100% guaranteed to earn the stipulated interest on your savings after the savings period.

That pretty much sums it up with what’s good on Piggyvest. Let’s move on to what’s not so good.


The double exchange rate
If you planned on saving in USD or Euros through the Piggyvest Flex Dollar plan, you’d find out that Piggyvest uses two different exchange rates — one when you deposit; the other when you attempt to withdraw your earnings.

The deposit exchange rate is usually higher, so you’re getting less value from your investment than would be the case when the exchange rates are the same or ‘true.’

This is even made worse by the fact that Piggyvest doesn’t accept direct dollar deposits. Even if you paid in dollars — using a dollar debit card, for instance — your money would be first converted to Naira, this time not by Piggyvest, but by your bank at lower bank rates before being used to purchase USD at a high market rate on Piggybank.

Interest earned is static
Despite fielding somewhat acceptable interest rates, the actual interest earned on Piggyvest is static. In other words, there’s no compounding or, in the context of Remicash, increase in value over time. This static nature exposes interest earned to the devaluation tendencies of inflation.

Piggyvest can be a bit cumbersome

The multiple savings options available on Piggyvest is both a feature and a bug. There’s practically one for every need, but then again, the barrage of options can confuse potential savers.

Verdict

Both Piggyvest and Remicash do an awesome job of helping people save and achieve financial goals. However, because Remicash bases its savings and investment platform on cryptocurrencies, it opens up a multitude of formerly inaccessible benefits to consumers.

Remicash provides an inflation resistant means to securing your finances
Remicash allows you to earn myriad cryptocurrencies


These benefits cannot be recreated on the Piggyvest platform. The bulk of Piggyvest’s standout features are, however, available or in development on Remicash.

For the financial investor who aims to secure their assets from devaluation while plugging into the future of digital money, Remicash makes a stronger argument of being the better fit. See how you can leverage a savings plan that fits you better on www.remi.Cash.