When it comes to saving money in Nigeria, people usually forgo money savings apps like Cowrywise and Piggyvest due to the technicalities involved in handling the apps.
Yet, they stand at the forefront of online money management. Not just in Nigeria, but the entire continent of Africa.
However, they are many different aspects surrounding these apps as one may far outweigh the other in terms of saving money.
For instance, I normally choose Cowrywise due to its mutual funds’ investment opportunities and Piggyvest for saving money. Once you can differentiate between these two, you can use them to scale your financial objectives.
So, you must be wondering, what are Piggyvest and Cowrywise all about and how can they support or promote savings habits?
The question lies in this post as I revealed and compared each of them so you can have a better understanding of their saving plans, interest rates, and other pertinent information you might want to know.
For the sake of understanding, I will be discussing only on the saving capabilities of these apps, so let’s get started.
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Cowrywise and Piggyvest Saving Features Review
Cowrywise
In times of need and emergency when money seems to play a crucial role in our daily lives, forgoing the prospect of saving money is a huge disaster that must be avoided at any point.
Cowrywise has about 4 savings features that allow users to choose from what they aim to achieve with the platform and save towards the goal without having to look back. In the app, you will come across savings tools like:
- Emergency funds
- Savings circle
- Halal savings
- Life goals
All of them have their peculiarity and set objectives. For instance, with life goals, users can save towards achieving a goal like paying for house rent, tuition fees, and others.
Emergency funds, allow you to save for a minimum period of 3 months. It is the only feature that allows you to break your savings in times of need.
Halal savings is for Muslim brothers and sisters who want to save without accruing interest and the savings circle is to build a group of people who share the same interest with you and save to achieve any objective.
You must know that, with the savings circle, individual withdrawals are not permitted until the rest of the group meet that goal.
Cowrywise is ideal for people who have many ambitions like savings and investing at the same time. The interest rates of these plans start from 9-10% and above. More on that later as we progress.
Piggyvest
Piggyvest’s general objective in Nigeria is to promote a savings culture among the young and working class. It has more savings plans and features than Cowrywise.
Examples are:
- Piggybank
- Safelock
- Target
- Flex naira
- Flex dollar
Piggy Bank is the main savings plan on the platform with a 9% interest rate per annum. In the plan, you have options to either auto-save or manually save. You can also add funds to progressing savings using the quicksave option.
Safelock plan? You can save your money for a specific time and never attempt to break. In this feature, you are required to save a portion of what you feel you won’t touch for a lengthy period.
Next, is the Target savings which allows you to set a target and work toward achieving that target every day or month. For instance, if you want to target N200,000 in three months, you can set the amount to be saved every day until you meet that target.
Is that simple? For a more practical explanation, read my previous post on the Target savings feature. I want you to understand how these plans work before putting in your money. In other plans like the Flex Naira, you decide to either keep your accrued interest or do anything with it.
Flex dollars allow you to convert all the plans to dollars once they have started yielding interest due to currency fluctuations and market conditions.
Interest Rates
Now, that you can tell between their savings plans, it is time to discuss their interest rates, let us see the one that can be the crown king of savings.
Cowrywise: The interest rates of Cowrywise savings plans start from 10% and nothing less. This is so because most of its plans can’t be broken.
Yet, you will need to meet the set date of any of the plans before thinking of withdrawals. It is the best option because it teaches us the importance of saving money and never relenting even at tough times.
Piggyvest: Piggyvest, on the other hand, has some decent interest rates in Safelock and Target. When you choose to save with these plans, you get a whopping interest of up to 13% in the Safelock alone, while Target is set at 10%.
The Piggybank has an interest rate of 9% which also allows you to pick a preferred date to get paid. Flex Naira and Dollar have the lowest interest rates of 7-8% per annum.
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Withdrawals
Cowrywise: You will be more disciplined in saving money when you choose Cowrywise because they make withdrawals very strict. For instance, you won’t be able to withdraw until the 3 months advantage reaches and that is the Emergency savings plan. However, if you plan to withdraw, you risk losing all the accrued interest.
In other plans, you can’t make withdrawals except the given objective is achieved. So, it is better to set a realistic goal when choosing a plan on Cowrywise because after choosing, there’s no going back.
With Piggyvest, you can make withdrawals outside the locked-up date but there is a penalty fee associated with such withdrawals. At first, Safelock is the common feature Nigerians tend to choose, so in the plan, you cannot break and if you decided to break, you will be charged a penalty fee.
Understand it this way, in Cowrywise, you lose your accrued interest while in Piggyvest, you pay a penalty fee for withdrawing outside of due dates.
Saving Comparison: Piggyvest vs Cowrywise Review
These giant apps are on the frontline of revolutionizing the online money management industry, top fintech apps that have claimed numerous awards in Nigeria due to their commitment to promoting saving money most innovatively.
In terms of saving, one is better equipped than the other. Given my illustration above, you will understand that Piggyvest is a much considerate option in terms of saving money.
However, trying both apps to improve your output, and earnings is not a bad idea. This is because a time will come when you needed funds seriously, and to avoid paying penalty fees, you have options in Cowrywise as you will only lose the interest accrued.
Nice idea right? This is my illustration and it will benefit those who like diversifying their ideas and knowledge.
Cowrywise is a better option with its mutual funds’ investment opportunities and some decent saving plans too. So, who is to be crowned king of saving money in Nigeria? That decision is left for you to make.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Which app is better than Piggyvest
The question should be which app is good in terms of saving money in Nigeria? Generally, I prefer Piggyvest because of the Safelock feature. This is the plan I’ve found encouraging and I will keep using it for years to come.
Talking about the better app, both Piggyvest, and Cowrywise are great and I won’t lie, it is hard to choose between them. However, my recommendation is that find a balance between the two and use them to your satisfaction.
Is Piggyvest a good investment hub?
When it comes to investments, I primarily choose Cowrywise as you can invest in mutual funds and money market funds. The funds are well-selected and managed by professional fund managers in the country.
Is Cowrywise approved by CBN?
Cowrywise is duly regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria to carry out activities related to savings and investments. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulates banks and microfinance institutions.
Is my money safe in Cowrywise?
Cowrywise encrypt your data and store them in a safe place to prevent unauthorized access, they also don’t store card information. They have an agreement in place with a PCI-DSS-compliant to protect users’ funds and information.
How do I make money on Cowrywise?
How to make money on Cowrywise: depending on the aim you choose to use the app as the only way to make money is by investing and saving money. If anyone tells you otherwise, they only want to take money from you.
Cowrywise is not a scheme or platform to make quick money. Rather, it is where dreams come true when you are ready to embrace saving and investment to supercharge your financial stability.
Best investment on Cowrywise
What is the best investment on Cowrywise? Simply put, you can invest in mutual funds. What are mutual funds? It is an investment vehicle that gathers money from different people called investors and uses those funds to invest in securities like bonds, equities, or money market funds.
That’s A Wrap!
If you’re still on this page, by now you must have had a better understanding of these two platforms created to help you manage your money and secure a good life for you and your loved ones.
Just put, when you come across Piggyvest and Cowrywise, they are both platforms I’ve found to be satisfactory, using them to your advantage will greatly benefit you in the long haul.
