you insure your house as well, you get more of your petrol spend
back – as much as 50%.
But where it gets really funky is if you have investments as well,
because if you are a nice client – and spend all your money
with the same company – they reward you. And if you are a
good girl or boy and do all the healthy, life-affirming things, they
reward you as well – even with the investment products.
Trying to compare them all is likely to give you a headache –
and even trying to understand all the ramifications of just one
product can bring on a spot of dizziness. So, giving up on ever
trying to understand it on my own, I chatted to Jackie Steele, a
Cape Town-based broker who specialises in Discovery.
‘You have to work it,’ she said. ‘Keep your Vitality status up, and
consolidate all your policies and products. If you take out an
endowment policy, for example, Discovery will reward you by
either reducing your admin costs up to 100% or boosting your
investment by up to 26%. So, say you invest R 100 000 for 10
years at a growth of 10%, and you have diamond status and a
life policy, Discovery will boost that investment by 26%. So, after
BIG BROTHER REALLY
IS WATCHING YOU
ten years, you will get R 259 374 plus the R 26 000 boost that
If you are a conspiracy theorist who believes “They” are spying
has grown by a guaranteed 6%, to R 39 678.’
on you, and are out to get you, you may not want to sign up to
a rewards programme, because “They” track your every move.
Seriously. I hit a rock driving through the Transkei a few years
rather rewarding basket. As an example, Jackie cited clients Mr
ago. I stopped, glanced at the totally trashed tyre, realised I
and Mrs “Smith”. They are the perfect Vitality poster kids. Both
would have to change the wheel, walked to the back of the car
diamond status, they go to gym, track their daily exercise with
and opened the boot. Then my phone rang.
wearable fitness devices (they are not conspiracy theorists), have
Discovery credit cards, life policies, medical aid, investments
‘Hi, this is DQ Tracker . We’ve registered a high impact event.
and home and car insurance. They are about ten years from
Are you OK?’
retirement.
Granted, that was a bit surprising. I assured them I was fine,
Last year, because of their diamond status, the Smiths’ life policy
and that I did not need an ambulance, police or a tow truck, all
cashback was 55% of their total premiums for the previous five
of which they offered. Yes, truly scary and paranoia-inducing
years. That came to R 75 000. And because they reinvested
if you are a conspiracy theorist, but pleasantly comforting if
this cashback into a Discovery retirement annuity, rather than
you are not.
spending it , Discovery boosted it by 100%. So Discovery
shadowed their invested R 75 000 by a further R 75 000,
But, if you’re not careful, and you buy in to the system completely,
which means they have a total of R 150 000 invested. So both
“They” also know everything about you, EVERYTHING, even to
these amounts are growing, and will become available as part
how may steps you took that day! It’s Google on steroids.
of their retirement plan at age 65. And they got a tax deduction
for the R 75 000 cash-back investment for that tax year . By
Oops I better not say steroids, I might lose my shiny card status.
now – a year later – the R 150 000 (R 75 000 plus the
shadowed R 75 000) has grown by the underlying portfolio
return of 12% to R 168 000. Not bad considering the Smiths
only invested their cashback money, which they had already
spent on premiums anyway.
So the bottom line is, check the different products carefully –
and I would get a broker to help you because they really are
quite complicated. And then, once you have decided between
Momentum, Discovery, Liberty, Sanlam, or any others out there
that I don’t know about – stick with it. Do your research, think
hard, make a logical decision, and then work it for all it’s worth.
Really, how scary is it?
31
RIKSY BUSNIESS
But it’s really about putting all your financial eggs in that one