Customers with a R5 500 net monthly income spend an average of R200 worth of prepaid services every month (data, voice, SMSs), which equates to over 4% of their income, according to data from FNB.
Pieter Woodhatch, chief executive of FNB Easy Subsegment, says tough economic conditions have put pressure on households especially those in entry-level income brackets, with consumers having to stretch their budgets even further to meet their monthly obligations.
“Telco spend comes out quite prominently because customers are using a large portion of their income to buy data, airtime and voice minutes,” he says.
As of 1 July, FNB started rewarding qualifying Easy customers with free data, airtime, voice minutes and SMSes each month.