1.75%: what it means for a household budget
· The Malak team
Sums worked to the centime to measure what cashback can amount to over a month, what it does not cover and how to count it in a budget.
Programme in preparation. No service is open to the public at this stage. The amounts below are worked examples, neither averages nor promises.
A percentage stays abstract until you set it against a real budget. What can 1.75% amount to by the end of the month? To answer honestly, the simplest way is to do the sums with the rules the programme plans to apply, one transaction at a time, without rounding them in its favour.
The calculation rule
The right to reward will be calculated on each transaction: the amount in centimes, multiplied by 175, divided by 10,000, then rounded down to the centime.
- 308.00 DH: 30,800 × 175 ÷ 10,000 = 539 centimes, which is 5.39 DH.
- 1,000.00 DH: 100,000 × 175 ÷ 10,000 = 1,750 centimes, which is 17.50 DH.
- 86.50 DH: 8,650 × 175 ÷ 10,000 = 151.375, rounded down to 151 centimes, which is 1.51 DH.
Rounding will happen on each transaction. Several small purchases could therefore earn a few centimes less than one purchase of the same total. The gap would stay tiny, but it explains why a total does not always land exactly on the rate.
A month in one household, line by line
Imagine a household that would pay its eligible expenses for the month by card. The amounts are chosen for the example.
| Expense | Transactions | Amount per transaction | Right per transaction | Right for the month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bakery | 8 | 45.00 DH | 0.78 DH | 6.24 DH |
| Café | 4 | 30.00 DH | 0.52 DH | 2.08 DH |
| Restaurant | 2 | 350.00 DH | 6.12 DH | 12.24 DH |
| Hairdresser | 1 | 250.00 DH | 4.37 DH | 4.37 DH |
| Dentist | 1 | 900.00 DH | 15.75 DH | 15.75 DH |
| Clothing | 1 | 1,200.00 DH | 21.00 DH | 21.00 DH |
| Garage | 1 | 1,500.00 DH | 26.25 DH | 26.25 DH |
| Total | 18 | 5,030.00 DH | 87.93 DH |
The 8 visits to the bakery assume at most 2 rewarded purchases a week at that shop, which is the planned limit. The dentist line assumes the optional consent for the health sector.
If every month looked like this one, the household would build up 87.93 × 12 = 1,055.16 DH over the year. That is a welcome extra, not an income.
What the percentage does not say
Not all of the budget will be eligible. Rent, shopping at large supermarkets, fuel, the phone bill and medicines will stay outside the programme. If the same household spent 9,000.00 DH in total in the month, the 87.93 DH would come to 0.97% of its budget, not 1.75%.
The sound habit is therefore to reason on the eligible share of your spending, not on the total.
QR payments and merchant offers
A mobile QR payment will add 1 point to the public rate, provided the public rate applies to that payment.
| Payment | Public rate | QR point | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 120.00 DH by QR | 2.10 DH | 1.20 DH | 3.30 DH |
| 275.00 DH by QR | 4.81 DH | 2.75 DH | 7.56 DH |
| 275.00 DH by card | 4.81 DH | None | 4.81 DH |
An offer funded by a merchant could come on top. A salon offering 6% on a purchase of 480.00 DH would add 28.80 DH to the 8.40 DH of the public rate, which makes 37.20 DH. These offers will be public, and each merchant will stay free to make one or not.
The limits to keep in mind
- A purchase of 15.00 DH will open no right: the minimum will be 20 DH, which gives 0.35 DH.
- A purchase of 8,000.00 DH will be rewarded on 5,000 DH only, which gives 87.50 DH.
- At the same merchant, the cap will be 2 rewarded transactions a week and 150 DH a month, which corresponds to about 8,571 DH of spending in the month.
- Overall, the cap will be 1,000 DH a month, which corresponds to about 57,000 DH of eligible spending.
These caps will apply per person. In a household where two adults each linked their card, each would have their own. Linking several cards, on the other hand, will not multiply the caps of one person.
How to fit it into your budget
- Count the right when it is paid, not when it is acquired. For a purchase made on a Monday, allow about 11 days before the right would enter a payout.
- Keep a margin for reversals. If you brought back a garment at 1,200.00 DH and the merchant refunded you, the 21.00 DH would be reversed.
- Do not spend to get money back. Spending 100.00 DH more would bring in 1.75 DH: it would still cost you 98.25 DH.
Cashback will reward a purchase you would have made anyway. It will not justify one.