Consumer Corner: Would you like some extra money next Christmas?

Get together with friends to create a 'Manage' so you'll be saving a little every month.

Let’s talk……A MANAGE

A what? What is a ‘manage’ you may ask. Well it could be just the answers to all your Christmas themed prayers at the end of 2022.

It’s January, it’s cold, it’s dark and most people are broke after Christmas. We may not have had as many nights out or fancy dinners as did in previous years but that money tree in the garden may still be looking fairly bare after the festive season. Soon the calls will come to pay for swimming lessons or home insurance or for that overused credit card bill as all that late night online shopping comes back to bite. You won’t want to hear it but now is the time to start thinking about Christmas 2022 or even your summer holidays.

Growing up we always heard the word ‘Manage’ around Christmas time. It is known as other things too such as a ‘Christmas Club’ or a ‘Penny Bank’. Basically it is when a group of people get together and save money every week to get a lump sum at Christmas.

For many years the Credit Union had accounts especially for this purpose but in recent years the ‘Manage’ is managed by a willing person.

How they work is a group around 10 people would form a ‘manage’ group and one person takes responsibility for collecting the money each week. Usually between €20 to €50 per week. They take a record of the money paid each week. If you started now with €50 a week you would have around €2,500 at Christmas. Traditionally the person organising it would be given a gift for their troubles at the end of the Manage. 

The most difficult part of a Manage is usually finding someone to do the collecting of the money. What you could do take turns as the collector so it doesn’t fall on one person. What is vital is accountability. It’s what makes a Manage work. The collector and people saving must be accountable for handing their money each week and the collector must keep proper written accounts of the money that comes in.

Keeping the cash may be tricky but An Post and the banks have savings accounts that can be set up to hold the money. An Post has a State Savings account with a seven day notice on it and a minimum savings per month of €25 and a maximum of €1,000. Bank of Ireland also has a ‘no notice’ account with a minimum savings of €20 per month and a maximum of €2,000 per month. With the rates so low there won’t be much in terms of interest on the money saved but it would keep it safe if you didn’t fancy keeping cash in the house.

In these days of social distancing and less cash in our lives there are other ways to manage the Manage of course. Another handy option is setting up a Vault on Revolut. Revolut, if you haven’t already heard of it, is what’s known as a ‘challenger bank’. It is basically an online bank that lets people transfer money between each other easily. They have over one million users in Ireland and an account can be set up online relatively easily. They have built into their app an option to set up a ‘vault’ whereby they will take money from your account each week and hold it until you would like to access it. Even if you set it up for €10 to go into your Vault each week between now and Christmas you would have an extra €500 at Christmas for presents or do we even say - socialising.

A little now will go a long way next Christmas and there’s no time like the present to start.