If you’re banking with FNB and not making use of eBucks, it’s about time you change that. And while you’re at it (or if you’re already earning eBucks), let’s get you all the way to maximum earning potential of level 5!

Reaching level 5 means that spending R3 000 at Checkers (or any of the 15% back in eBucks partners) will net you eb4 500 (R450), which means you’ve already covered your account fee (assuming the most expensive, bundled, option that’s currently R419).

This article will focus on the Private Clients rules, but the concepts carry over to the other products.

There are three easy steps:

1. Read the earning rules
2. Get enough points for level 5, starting with the easiest rules
3. Profit

Read the Earning Rules

eBucks has a nice rewards calculator on their website and on the FNB App.

Your priority should be to check whether you qualify. For eBucks level 5, you’ll need to either have the FNB Private Clients Fusion account (which is a hybrid Cheque, Overdraft and Credit Card account) or both the “normal” Private Clients Cheque and Credit Card account. On the detailed rules page there is some additional fine print, but the main idea is:

• Your income (which needs to be deposited into your Cheque/Fusion account) should match with the Private Clients income requirement. This is a monthly deposit (or average over 12 months) of R32 500. On the Spousal pricing option it’s R5 500. Otherwise, you can also maintain a minimum balance of R75 000 in your account.
• Your other FirstRand accounts (FNB, WesBank, DirectAxis, etc.) need to be in good standing (i.e., not in arrears)
• Log into the FNB App with your own banking profile at least once a month (only if you’re under 60)

Now you can have a read through the earn rules. I find it easiest to use the calculator page as mentioned in the start of this section and then start marking the rules where I already meet the requirements without even trying. For example, under the “My Cards” section, if you have a Fusion account with a limit and an active card linked to it, mark that rule as yes.

Don’t feel discouraged if some of the categories seem unobtainable, you really only need to get a handful of the points!

Once you have a baseline score, you can then start picking up the points you still need.

Getting the Points

There are some misconceptions that you need to spend a lot of money or go into unnecessary debt to reach level 5. On the contrary, thousands of points are up for grabs without spending additional money. We’ll focus on these first. Afterwards, we’ll look at topping up with any points we still need for the least amount of effort or additional expenses.

Low-hanging fruit

Some of the points available are minimal effort and don’t cost anything at all! If you ONLY do the rules discussed in this section, you should be able to reach level 4 or level 5 already.

Digital Banking

• (1000 points) Set up 3 “Smart Budget” categories and look at you “Smart Budget” each month. This can be found in the FNB App menu by going to “nav-igate life”, “nav>> Money” and “Smart budget”. This takes only a couple of minutes to set up the first time; in subsequent months you only need to view it. You’ll need to go to the “Not in my budget” or “Uncategorised” section, which should contain your usual monthly transactions. Select one of the categories (e.g., Car repayment), set a limit and select “Save budget and alerts”. If you do want to make better use of this feature, you can check the box for the notification when you reach the limit you set.
• (1000 – 2000 points) In addition to the Smart Budget above, if you also have a credit status of at least light amber (the middle one) you get additional points. You can see this estimated credit status on nav>> Money as well, under “Credit status”. Light amber is worth 1000 points, light green is 1500 and dark green (the highest) is 2000. This credit status won’t be 100% accurate, but there might be some easy fixes you can do to get it a category up if necessary. For example, it seems that it does not recognise prepayments into a bond as “savings on hand” so shifting some of that to a separate savings or investment account might be worthwhile if you need a handful of points (though you’ll miss out on some of the interest savings).
• (500 – 1000 points) Do at least three FNB Pay (from your phone/smart watch) transactions, with at least one being made from a virtual card to get the full 1000. This can become annoying to do when tapping your physical card is usually much easier. But a 1000 points is a 1000 points. However, setting up FNB Pay on your app is a good idea whether you plan to pursue these points or not. You do this by accessing “Payments” from the FNB App menu and then selecting “FNB Pay”. Fitbit, Garmin and Samsung’s tap to pay platforms will also count if it’s linked to your FNB card (I’m guessing Apple Pay will also be supported soon). I don’t see an option to use a virtual card for the tap to pay, but you can select a virtual card when you do a “Scan to pay”. Virtual cards are also a security must-have, regardless of the points, so be sure to start using them for your online purchases. Some online stores, such as Takealot, offer the Masterpass payment option, which can be used with a virtual card and “Scan to pay”.
• (500 points) Look at the “Track my rewards” page each month for an easy 500 points. It’s on the eBucks Rewards page in the FNB app under “Earn” and “Track my rewards”. This page is similar to the eBucks calculator and looks like it will start tracking your daily point earn in the near future. Useful!
• (2000 points) Doing eight financial transactions per month on the FNB App might sound like a lot, but can be managed quite easily by introducing a couple of habits:
  • Buy your prepaid airtime, electricity, etc. from the FNB App
  • Do inter-account transfers (e.g., paying off your credit card) on the app
  • If you’re short a couple of transactions, buy a lotto ticket 😊
  • Remember that FNB Pay and Virtual Card purchases don’t also count for these!

My Cards

• (1000 points) Have an active FNB Fusion account (with a credit limit) as well as an active card linked to the account. Fusion should already be included in your account fee, but you might need to ask FNB to convert your cheque account to Fusion. There might be a bit of admin, but still an easy once-off way to get 1000 points each month.
• (500 – 2000 points) Using four streaming or online services from the list, all with a Virtual Card, will net you the maximum points here and you need at least two of the services for the 500 points. This one might cost you money if you don’t already use at least four of them, but I think most people would already be using at least two of the services listed. Changing these to use a virtual card is a couple of minutes of admin, but it’s a once-off effort that also greatly increases your security. The listed services are:
  • Deezer
  • iTunes
  • Netflix
  • Spotify
  • YouTube
  • Showmax
  • SweepSouth
  • Audible
  • Google Play (and Google, listed separately)
  • Mr Delivery Food
  • Uber or Uber Eats (implying that using both won’t count as using two services…)
  • PlayStation
  • Xbox
  • Bolt
  • Checkers Sixty60
• (1000 points) Avoid ATM and branch withdrawals, or make sure your “Cash@Till” withdrawals are more. I believe you still get these points if you have zero for all these categories. But if you do need to withdraw cash, try and do it at a retailer that supports Cash@Till (many of the Shoprite, Checkers, Pick n Pay and Spar stores do).
• (1000 points) Spend more than 75% of your total spend on your Fusion or Credit Card (as opposed to your cheque card). I don’t think it’s possible to NOT get these points if you’ve replaced your Cheque card with a Fusion card!
• (1000 points) Have a monthly auto payment set up on your (active) Credit Card. The auto payment is usually set up by default, but it’s worth checking (Accounts -> Credit Card -> Account Options -> Maintain Auto Payment).

Home

• (500 points) Use something in the Nav>> Home section of the FNB App. You don’t need an FNB home loan to get these points (I think). You should be able to qualify for the 500 points by just using any of those services, e.g., using the “Find a property” tool or pulling an automatic value estimate.

Family

• (1000 points) Get a spouse with an active FNB Private Clients account and make sure they’re registered in the “My family” tab under the “My profile” screen in the FNB App. Obviously, this rule is not feasible for everyone, but if you do have a spouse or life partner who banks at FNB (or that you can convince) then this is a relatively easy 1000 points.

By satisfying these 12 rules, you should have between 10 000 and 14 000 points. This will take you to at least level 4, which requires 10 000 points. Level 5 requires 12 000 points, which should now be almost in your grasp, if not already obtained.

Topping up with low effort or cost

If you’ve followed the steps above, you should only need around 2 000 points max. There are still a few relatively easy options available. In most cases I’ve chosen the options that would get you at least 1 000 points.

• Spending some money:
  • We’ve cleared out most of the “Digital Banking” and “My Cards” points. But if you do need to spend money on airtime anyway, you could consider getting an FNB Connect SIM: Spending R550 each month will get you 1 000 points. I haven’t had major issues with coverage on FNB Connect. I think they use MTN’s towers, so coverage should be similar.
• Saving some money:
  • Under “Save” there weren’t any obvious choices that jumped out, but if you’ve got R65 000 you want to save, you can earn 1 000 points by putting it into either the short (up to 7 day access) or long term (greater than 7 day access, e.g. fixed deposit) savings products. If you have debt and don’t need the liquidity it might make more sense to pay of the higher interest debt first, though (especially personal loans or credit card debt).
  • “Offshore Banking” has a couple of big hitters. You can get 2 000 points by having 5 000 Euro, British Pounds or US Dollars in one of the FNB Channel Islands saving products. This is double the points that you can get in the “Save” section for only an additional R10 000 investment (depending on exchange rate). Again, it might make sense to pay off debt first. But if you need to have some foreign currency on hand, then this could work for you.
  • “Invest” can net you 1 000 points per month if you deposit at least R3 000 into a tax-free share, unit trust or cash deposit account. If you’ve already deposited your full tax-year allowance of R36 000 then you can get 1 500 points per month.
• Credit products:
  • “Borrow” can give you 2 000 points if you have a loan of at least R60 000 or if you have a revolving loan that you’re using at least 40% of. You should probably not get these just for the points, but this is good to know if you do need a loan.
  • If you have a Home Loan, there are some easy points under “Home”, especially if you only have bonds with FNB. You get 500 points for having a flexi facility and a debit order, and at least 500 points if your utilisation is between 30% and 100%. The sweet spot for the 2 000 points is to have a utilisation of between 60% and 89.9%. It could make sense to push savings into or out of your Home Loan to make sure you get the necessary level of utilisation. For example, if you have a home loan that currently has a remaining capital balance of R1.5m, you want to prepay at least 11% (R165 000) to make sure your utilisation is below the 89.9%. This option may be more attractive than the “Invest” and “Save” options, as you’re likely saving more on interest by pre-paying the higher interest home loan.
• Other stuff:
  • If you need Insurance, there’s a 1 000 points for cover of at least R1.2m. Just remember to also update your “My Health Details” on the FNB App at least once a year. (Nav -> Wellness). The application process was really easy when I got the Life Simplified policy a while ago.
    • If you also add a Will with FNB as the executor and keep it in FNB’s custody you can get an additional 1 000 points. (The will can’t be older than five years). The Will on its own can still get you 500 points without insurance.
  • If you have kids, you can consider the FNBy transactional account, or open up the FNBy savings account and deposit at least R300 per month into it. This will also give you 1 000 points. (The balance in the FNBy savings account might also count towards the short-term savings in the “Save” category, but I’m not sure)

Profit

Now that you’re on level 5, you can start earning a nice bit of eBucks every month. Remember that only spending at eBucks partners will earn you eBucks (besides the Smart Spend targets discussed below)…

• “Smart Spend” can give you up to R1 500 in eBucks per month for spending certain amounts on your Credit Card or Fusion Card during the month. You’ll get R150 for the first R10 000 you spend and increasing amounts for every R10 000 thereafter up to R50 000:

Spent on Credit/Fusion Card	eBucks Reward for reaching the target	Total Reward
R10 000	R150 (eB1 500)	R150
R20 000	R220 (eB2 200)	R370
R30 000	R300 (eB3 000)	R670
R40 000	R380 (eB3 800)	R1 050
R50 000	R450 (eB4 500)	R1 500

• To maximise your Smart Spend potential, you want to move as much of your monthly expenses to your Credit/Fusion Card as possible. Some examples:
  • Use MasterPass, EasyPay or similar services to pay your municipal account or other bills from your Credit/Fusion Card instead of doing an EFT
  • Pay with your Credit/Fusion Card instead of cash/EFT as much as possible
  • Pool your family expenses to one account, if possible. For example, have your spouse spend on an additional card linked to your account instead of spending on their own account. (Remember that you’ll be responsible for the money they spend, so this only works if the family can work together responsibly with money)
• Buy fuel at Engen
  • Remember that you can double this at the end of each quarter if you have a vehicle loan with WesBank, Toyota Financial Services or Volkswagen Financial services and only buy fuel at Engen and load your financed vehicle on the “My Garage” section of the Nav>>Car section of the FNB App.
• Buy groceries at Checkers (15% back). I highly recommend their Sixty60 app if you’re close enough to a Checkers
  • You can earn a max of R450 per month
• Buy at Clicks (15% back)
  • You can earn a max of R375 per month
• Shopping online or in-store at eBucks partners (2.5% back)
  • The lists of eBucks partners can be seen on the FNB App under eBucks -> Earn -> Earn more eBucks (you might need to go to the History tab). If you tap on any of the categories, you’ll see a button at the bottom that will display the list of partners.

Getting to eBucks level 5 not only provides you with a nice bonus cashflow each month, but also the opportunity to get 40% off various things as they rotate into promotion:

• The eBucks shop on the FNB App sometimes has a couple of items for 40% off (eBucks -> Shop/Donate). The website has had different things on 40% off in the past, so it’s sometimes worthwhile to check the website too.
• Some flights and car rentals qualify for 40% off (eBucks -> Travel). You need to book a flight on the FNB App to unlock the 40% discount on the related car hire, though.
• Occasionally some vouchers (eBucks -> Spend -> Vouchers) will be on 40% off, with the most common being NuMetro movie vouchers.