There are two key elements to making an investment as follows:

1. Ensuring you have adequate funds to make the investment, and

2. Acquiring the investment you want, with those funds


In the case of Bidvest Bank Investments, you can instruct the platform to purchase a particular share / ETF / basket or bundle in your account at regular intervals - the various methods will be explained below - but you need to ensure that before the Recurring Investment takes place, that you have tranferred sufficient funds from your Bidvest Bank Grow account into your Bidvest Bank EasyEquities account to cover the cost of the purchase.


Thanks to the seamless connection between your Bidvest Bank account and Bidvest Bank Investment account, the transfer of funds can be easily conducted by following these instructions - How to fund my Bidvest Bank Investment account?


So core to the successful operation of the Recurring Investment you setup, is that you ensure that you transfer funds into your Bidvest Bank Investment account, before the Recurring Investment is set to run, otherwise the Recurring Investment will fail.


A Recurring Investment can be set up by following one of the 3 easy methods explained below.



A. From the Recurring investments page


The setup of a Recurring Investment can be initiated from the Recurring Investments page as per the steps below.



1. Click on the My Recurring Investments option in the stack menu to the left of the Bidvest Bank Investment logo, as in the image below.


Doing so will take you to the Recurring Investments page of the website.






2. Click on the Setup Recurring Investment button under the specific type of recurring Investment you'd like to make. 


There are 3 types as follows:

1. Shares / ETF's - clicking on the setup button under this type this will take Investors to the Browse companies page from on which they can search for and select shares / ETF's to buy in the usual manner. After selecting a share or ETF they should arrive at the Buy page of that share or instrument and can then continue to method B below.

2. Bundles - clicking on the setup button under this type will take Investors to the Baskets page of the site. After selecting the basket they like clicking on the buy button for that basket, they should arrive at the basket Buy page and can then continue to method B below.



B. From the Buy page of an instrument ( share / ETF ) or product ( basket / bundle )


When you navigate to the buy page of a share, ETF, basket or bundle, you will be greeted with the familiar buy options of selecting one of the standard amounts (Ie. R250, R500, R1000) to Invest together with the custom amount field - as shown in the image below.





To setup a Recurring Investment from here, please follow the steps below:


1. Select / enter the amount you'd like to Invest

2. Click on the Recurring button if you'd like to setup a Recurring Investment


3. Doing so, will take you to the add recurring investment screen with the recurring investment amount populated with the amount you selected / input on the previous page as well as a 10% default value for the annual increase percentage. Both of these figures can be changed on this page.




4. Choose when you want the payments to occur. You have the choice of making the recurring investment every:

  1. Month
  2. Quarter
  3. Year



5. Choose the day on which you'd like the recurring investment to be made. You can choose the:
  1. 1st of the month
  2. 15th of the month
  3. 28th of the month


6. If you choose the quarterly or annually options, you will be required to select the month on which you want the quarter or year to start.




7. You need to accept the EasyEquities terms and conditions (those of our technology partner that govern the use of the platform) by clicking on the little box presented to you on the bottom left of the page. 

8. Once you have completed all your selections, click on the continue button - this will take you to the confirm your recurring investment page, which will summarise the full details of your recurring investment in 2 parts:
  1. Recurring Investment details - this part of the confirmation outlines the following details for you to check.
    1. The instrument / product you are buying
    2. The payment method (this is defaulted to funds available in your Bidvest Bank account)
    3. The frequency of the payment
    4. The annual % increase chosen (default value of 0% if not changed)
    5. The exclude fee or fee inclusive option chosen as part of your account preferences
    6. The date on which the first Investment will be made
  2. Investment cost - this part of the confirmation outlines the costs of the Investment for you to check
    1. Broker commission - usual brokerage cost of 0.25%
    2. Settlement and administration - the usual cost of 0.075%
    3. Investor protection levy (IPL) - the usual cost of 0.0002%
    4. VAT - levied against the 3 fees above
    5. Securities transfer tax and administration - the usual cost of 0.25% (this is not charged against investments made in a TFSA account)
    6. Recurring Investment fee - a new fee particular to the setup of the Recurring Investment
    7. Bundle / Basket fee - where applicable when a bundle / basket is the item for which a Recurring Investment is being created.



9. Once you have checked all of the details of your recurring investments and are happy they are correct, click on the Add to recurring button at the bottom right of the confirmation screen. If you want to change something, you can click the Edit button and amend the details of your Recurring Investment as desired.

Doing so will take you to the recurring investments page on which you will see a confirmation that the recurring investment was successfully created - see image below



You will also see details of the recently added Recurring investments which you can edit / remove at any time. Please see our FAQ article on How do I edit or remove a recurring investment? How do I edit or remove a recurring investment? for details on how do to that.



C. From the Cog icon on the corner of an instrument ( share / ETF ) you own


All the instruments an Investor owns can be found on the Account Overview screen.


Each share / ETF on the page has a small blue gear icon (in the card view) in the top right-hand corner of the card as highlighted in the image below.


Clicking on this cog icon will give the Investor a number of options in relation to that particular share / ETF




Should an Investor like a particular share / ETF and want to create a Recurring Investment for it, they can do so as follows:


1. Click on the blue gear icon


2. Click on the Add Recurring option displayed in the image above 


Doing so will take the Investor to the add recurring investment screen


3. The Investor can now choose the particular details of the Recurring Investment they would like to setup, starting with entering the amount they would like to invest in the chosen instrument and if desired, changing the annual increase percentage (from the default value of 10%).


The Investor can then continue with the steps explained in detail from Step 4 onward of Method B in this FAQ article (see above).