1000 Won is OK... Investing Spare Change Like This [Practical Finance]

Smart Small Investment Tips

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] With the advent of the MyData era, an environment has been created where small change and leftover points scattered across various banks can be gathered and invested easily. Even customers unfamiliar with financial technology can start investing without burden by collecting small change or leftover points. Major domestic banks are launching various products and services to facilitate this. In particular, leftover money investment often targets the 2030 generation without large sums of money, making unique products and services tailored to the younger generation’s preferences popular in the banking sector.

◆Financial opportunities even for beginner investors: "Turn small change into savings and funds" = KB Kookmin Bank’s ‘KB MyFit Account and Savings,’ launched in June last year, offers a ’money splitting‘ service that allows emergency funds to be managed separately and enables investment with small amounts, making it especially popular among the MZ generation aged 18 to 38 who are new to financial technology.

The account is a deposit with free withdrawals and deposits, allowing one account to be divided and managed according to purpose into basic expenses, living expenses, and emergency funds. The savings plan allows flexible monthly deposits ranging from 1,000 KRW to 500,000 KRW. Due to the possibility of small investments, as of the 5th of this month, there are 66,000 subscribed accounts with a cumulative balance of 78.9 billion KRW, showing strong popularity among young people.

Hana Bank has been operating a ‘Small Change Fund’ since the 2nd of this month for beginner investors unfamiliar with financial products, allowing investment not only with small change but also with small amounts of money. The Small Change Fund is characterized by allowing anyone to start investing from 1,000 KRW. It is designed to enable additional investments with leftover change of 100 KRW or more, demonstrating that fund investment is easily possible with leftover money.

On the mobile app Hana One Q, to coincide with the launch of the Small Change Fund, a plan is in place to provide 1,000 KRW coupons for Small Change Fund subscriptions to the first 50,000 users over the next two months. Additionally, a ‘Savings Support Event’ is being held where all customers who subscribe to the Small Change Fund using the coupon and make additional deposits will receive 1,000 Hana Money points. The Small Change Fund will also include a leftover money collection feature. When paying with ‘One Q Pay’ or a ‘Check Card,’ leftover change can be automatically invested, and various services supporting customers’ investment experiences, such as earning points by completing missions like quitting smoking, will be included.

Turn scattered small change in banks into savings and funds
"Save every day"

◆Even though it’s leftover money, the habit of daily accumulation is financial technology= Woori Bank is conducting additional sales after its ‘Woori 200-Day Savings,’ which automatically deposits leftover money daily, sold out. Woori Bank launched the ‘Woori 200-Day Savings’ on September 28 last year, introducing a new webtoon-style interface in collaboration with the popular webtoon ‘Yumi’s Cells,’ serialized on Naver, through Woori WON Banking. It sold out early within six weeks but is now selling an additional 100,000 accounts, with the total number of accounts exceeding 172,000 as of the 12th of this month.

The ‘Woori 200-Day Savings’ allows users to set a plan suitable for themselves with a daily deposit amount within 30,000 KRW. Deposit plans include ▲ an automatic transfer plan that automatically transfers a fixed amount daily, ▲ a ‘press deposit’ plan where users receive a daily push notification and can deposit at once by pressing, and ▲ an account leftover accumulation plan that automatically deposits leftover amounts below a certain threshold from a designated account daily. The savings interest rate is up to 2.3%, applying a base rate of 1.0% and a preferential rate of 1.3 percentage points.

NongHyup Bank is selling the ‘All One 5-Day Savings,’ which allows small daily automatic transfers (starting from 1,000 KRW) from Monday to Friday under the motto ‘Save every day from Monday to Friday.’ It is designed as a customized product reflecting the recent needs of young people who value small pleasures and work-life balance by fostering saving habits and setting saving goals.

Each deposit can be freely made from 1,000 KRW to 100,000 KRW, with automatic transfers set daily from 1,000 KRW to 30,000 KRW. Additionally, reflecting the 52-hour workweek trend, a 0.1 percentage point interest rate premium is given for subscriptions made after 6 p.m. on weekdays (‘sharp quitting time’) or on holidays.

◆Joint investment in art pieces, sneakers, and gold investment with points also possible= There is also a new concept of small-amount financial technology service where limited-edition sneakers, art toys, and artworks can be jointly purchased with small amounts, jointly owning ownership rights and sharing profits from resale according to ownership.

Using Shinhan Bank’s mobile payment service ‘SOL Pay,’ customers can own high-priced limited-edition products and artworks with small amounts through the small-amount joint purchase service.

The minimum investment amount is 1,000 KRW. Typically, resale completion takes 2 to 3 months, and once resale is completed and settlement is processed, profits are automatically deposited into the registered Shinhan Bank account. Hana Bank plans to launch a service next month allowing gold investment with leftover points, reflecting the demand for utilizing leftover points. By introducing a small-amount gold investment service in the Hana Financial Group’s integrated app Hana Members, customers will be able to invest in small quantities of gold in units of 0.0001 grams using leftover Hana Money (points).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.