For many South Africans, January feels notoriously long, and there’s a very real financial reason behind the joke. An analysis of salaried workers’ pay cycles by Standard Bank shows that the gap between December and January playdates is longer than any other month.
With public holidays, shutdowns and year-end leave, the festive season fast-tracks the December payroll cycle. As a result, January feels like the longest month, with an early December salary having to cover both Christmas and back-to-school costs. This extended gap can make managing money in early January especially challenging, heightening financial anxiety at a time when households are recovering from festive spending.
Amid these pressures, Standard Bank is offering a practical way to ease the mental load and help customers stay ahead of their commitments with the Future Payments feature in its banking app.
In the attached soundbite, Shené Mothilal, Solution Owner for Digital Money Manager at Standard Bank, unpacks key features of Future Payments, including:
• how it predicts upcoming payments
• the time periods you can view
• the types of recurring payments it displays
• how the feature flags January payments early to support better planning
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