99% of Black Friday discounts are bogus

What many suspected has been confirmed: Black Friday is actually a big marketing campaign. Discounts hardly ever reflect reality and prices on electronics and household appliances are on average 3% higher than the lowest price recorded in the previous 30 days, according to the Organisation of Consumers and Users (OCU).

According to a survey by Tandem Up, 85% of consumers planned to buy something on Black Friday. And the fact is that more and more people are bringing their Christmas shopping forward to take advantage of the supposed sales of this campaign. However, the reality is that the advertised discounts that they found were almost always false, according to a study by the OCU.

This research has compared the evolution of 16,000 online prices over more than a month, mainly for electronics and household appliances, but also in other areas. Its main conclusion is that 99% of the advertised discounts are not real. In fact, the theoretical average discount of 25% labelled for Black Friday turns into an average increase of 3% on the minimum price recorded during the last month.

Non-compliance with regulations

For most products, online retailers do not use the lowest price of the last 30 days as a reference for comparative savings, but any other price recorded during that period or even the recommended retail price, which breaches current legislation.

It should be borne in mind that Law 7/1996 on the Regulation of Retail Trade, recently amended to adapt it to European directives, establishes in article 20.1 that whenever articles are offered with a price reduction “the previous price must be clearly shown together with the reduced price” and that “the previous price shall be understood to be the lowest price that had been applied in the previous 30 days”.

Fortunately, if you think that your rights have been violated, you can file a complaint with the Catalan Consumer Agency, a Municipal Consumer Information Office or one of the Consumer Arbitration Boards.

Catalonia is no exception

Bad practices on Black Friday seem to be widespread if we take into account research on the previous Black Friday campaign in the UK that reaches very similar conclusions to those of the OCU.

After checking 214 offers at seven of the UK’s leading home and technology retailers (Amazon, AO, Argos, Currys, John Lewis, Richer Sounds and Very) during the 2021 Black Friday campaign, it found that 86% of these items had been offered cheaper or at the same price at some point in the six months prior to Black Friday. 

It’s clear that Black Friday discount labelling can’t be trusted, so the only alternative, if you’re looking for bargains, is to keep track of price trends for the products you’re interested in. This is the only way to make sure you get them at the right time.

If you want your business to make a giant leap, use 11Onze Business. Our business and freelancer account is now available. Find out more!

The ‘small print’ of any contractual relationship often goes unnoticed by the consumer when contracting a service or purchasing a product. Some companies take advantage of this fact to introduce clauses with abusive agreements. The law says that contracts have to be written in a clear and understandable way, but, even so, the traps of the ‘small print’ are repeated. Why? Jordi Coll, 11Onze agent, explains it to us.

If we talk about size, the ‘small print’ no longer exists, at least in reference to the contracting of services. Since 1 June of this year, the law obliges banks, insurance companies and any other service company to write the contracts they offer to consumers in characters with a minimum size of 2.5 millimetres.

The new regulation aims to avoid the damage caused to customers as a result of illegible contracts, which are impossible or more difficult to read because of the small print. The scandal of the ‘preferentes’ shares and subordinated debentures, which particularly affected the most vulnerable sectors of the population, such as the elderly, highlighted the urgent need to reform the regulations.

As Coll explains, “companies often use the small print with contracts that are not negotiable, and in order for them to go unnoticed by consumers”, and he continues, “they are even used to introduce clauses with abusive agreements”.

Size isn’t everything

Will this new regulation change anything? The previous law already set a minimum size for the small print, as well as calling for clarity and transparency in contracts. But despite the court rulings in favour of customers, condemning the companies involved, abuses were repeated. Why? Because it is good business. The percentage of affected customers who complain is negligible, so, bearing in mind that the profits are considerable, it pays to pay the fines, sanctions and lawsuits without changing anything.

Despite the fact that, as Coll points out, “current legislation allows consumers to request the non-application of these clauses when they have not been drafted with adequate clarity and transparency, or to declare them null and void when they are abusive”, bad practices have not been eliminated.

When asked to explain abusive credit card contracts or banking products such as preference shares, the excuse used by banks to justify themselves is to pass the buck to the customer, claiming that they should have read the contract. Does the size of the text characters really make a difference? Or is it the wording of the clauses and the ethical integrity of the institutions that should also be corrected?

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

Some concepts are fundamental to understand why we are on the brink of a recession, where the new world economic order is heading and who will be the major players. 

The Great Reset is the name of an initiative of the World Economic Forum that sought to rethink the capitalist economic model once the ravages of the pandemic had been overcome. The reality is that the health crisis has been compounded by a debt crisis and an inflationary crisis that have brought us to the brink of recession. 

In the current context, the “great reset of capitalism” called for by this international body is more necessary than ever. We review some key concepts to understand how we have reached a situation close to collapse and what factors will condition the economy’s near future. 

Asia

The axis of the global economy is shifting from Europe and the United States to Asia. According to a study  by the consulting firm McKinsey, by 2040 Asia will account for more than half of the world’s gross domestic product and 40% of consumption. Europe’s loss of prominence is evident and the IMF predicts that at least half of the eurozone countries will enter recession in the coming months.

Climate change

Global warming has forced us to move away from the idea of unlimited growth at the expense of depleting natural resources and has given way to the idea of the circular economy, with opportunities in the field of the “green” economy. As COP27 has shown, it now remains to be seen to what extent industrialised countries will bear the economic cost of the climate change they have generated and what measures they are prepared to take to slow down warming in the context of economic crisis.

Corporate power 

Large multinationals have growing power in the face of declining state influence. Many of these corporations oversee huge supply chains, sell their products around the world and have revenues exceeding those of many governments. In fact, if it were a country, Walmart would rank tenth in terms of revenue. Globalisation has reversed the balance of power and in many cases large corporations are allowed to avoid paying taxes with impunity.

Decentralisation

New technologies are enabling the emergence of products and services beyond the control of states and large corporations. As James Sène, chairman of 11Onze, pointed out in a session at Fintech Talks, we are facing a “transition from the old model, totally dominated by a few, to a new model that reaches more people and is decentralised”. Decentralisation of money creation, for example, has been one of the great pillars of cryptocurrencies.

Digital currencies

Faced with the advance of cryptocurrencies, which propose a totally decentralised monetary model, states are working against the clock to develop digital currencies controlled by central banks (CBDCs) in order to maintain a centralised financial system. In China, more than 260 million people have already used the digital yuan (e-CNY). In Europe, the European Commission expects the regulation on the digital euro to be ready by the beginning of 2023 and the digital currency to be operational by 2025. The initial aim is that the digital euro, managed and supervised by the European Central Bank, will not replace cash, but complement it.

Inequality

Data from the World Inequality Report 2022 show that since the mid-1990s, the richest 10 % of the world’s population has accumulated 76 % of the wealth generated in the world. In fact, 38% was concentrated in the hands of the top 1% of the world’s population. And the poorest half of the population has had to make do with the crumbs: barely 2% of the wealth generated during these last decades. Unfortunately, this gap between the super-rich and ordinary mortals has only widened during the pandemic. And experts agree that this growing inequality is a brake on global economic development.

Interest rates

After 11 years without an increase, the European Central Bank began raising interest rates in Europe in July. For the time being, they have already reached 2 % and the forecast is that they will continue to rise in the coming months to cool the economy even more and curb inflation. The ECB has aligned itself with the majority of the world’s central banks, which are also raising their interest rates to combat rising prices. This measure will directly impact the pockets of many citizens, as mortgage and variable-rate loans will become increasingly expensive.

Printing fiat currency

It is estimated that the total amount of money in circulation worldwide, including banknotes, coins, cheques and promissory notes, exceeds 60 trillion euros. The problem is that a considerable part of these banknotes have been put into circulation in recent years. For example, in 2020 alone, the US money supply increased by 24%. Most central banks have been printing money to cope with galloping public debt. And this increase in fiat currency has been mainly responsible for the current inflation.

Public debt

The world’s public debt has soared in recent years and is strangling economic growth. Although the limit set by the Maastricht Treaty for EU member states is 60 % of their GDP, the eurozone countries as a whole have been above 100 % for more than a year now, according to Eurostat data. The situation outside Europe is no better, with the International Monetary Fund estimating that, by the end of 2021, global public debt also represented 100 % of world GDP. Moreover, debt levels could worsen if the crisis deepens.

Stagflation

Since March 2021, prices have risen sharply and almost uninterruptedly. Inflation in Catalonia, which exceeded 10% year-on-year in the summer, was close to 7% in October. The situation beyond our borders is no better, as inflation in the euro area as a whole reached 10.7% in the same month. Successive interest rate hikes are expected to help control inflation levels not seen since the 1980s. The price to be paid will be further economic stagnation, leading to a recession in the major economies.

Subscription

As we pointed out in an article in La Plaça, a new mutual model is emerging, more communitarian and based on the sharing of goods and services, as an alternative to the model of individual purchase and use. In subscription business models, each customer pays fees that allow prolonged access to a good or service instead of making a large upfront payment to own that good or service. This business model is increasingly common in the computer, entertainment or automotive industries.

Virtuality

We do not live in a virtual world, but we do live in a virtualised world, since “what happens in the digital world has a real impact on our lives”, as James Sène warned in a session on the current economic situation. In this sense, the president of 11Onze predicted that the metaverse, whose economy depends on the authentication of digital properties, will play a key role in digitising our identities.

If you want your business to make a giant leap, use 11Onze Business. Our business and freelancer account is now available. Find out more!

At 11Onze we are not just creating a fintech. We are forging a community that will be key to achieving financial sovereignty, individually and collectively. “If we come together, we will be stronger,” says 11Onze CEO James Sène. We review with him what we mean by fincom and how it is key to empower ourselves.

We have invented a new term because we are doing something new, which did not exist until now: a financial community. “The word fincom comes from the contraction of fintech and community. We are starting a new model, but we are not doing it alone,” Sène begins. The idea, he goes on to explain, is inspired by a type of bank that is born around a community, especially in the United States, where they are known to bring together certain communities, such as African-Americans.

Inspired by these financial initiatives, however, the 11Onze community has gone further. The difference, Sène explains, lies in the ownership of the financial institution. “None of these community projects are driven by the community itself. In contrast, at 11Onze we expand the ownership of the institution as much as possible. We have more than 150 investors, and we are striving to reach as many people as possible. All of them will be the owners of 11Onze. And this is very important. In Catalonia we share a language, a lifetime, a culture, and now we want to help this community build its financial sovereignty,” he sums up.

A community that learns how to learn

The model is pioneering and necessary. In a globalised world, which is undergoing changes that will alter the world’s poles of influence in the coming years, citizens have to learn to build a strong social and cultural fabric, as well as an economic one. “Until now, there has been a very clear leadership of the United States, but all this is beginning to falter with competition from China and Asian countries. Europe is falling in the middle. There are no countries independent of each other. We need each other in order to protect our communities. That’s why the big question we ask ourselves in 11Onze: on whom do we want to depend, and how do we want to depend on them?

If Catalonia wants to answer this question, says Sène, it first needs to exercise the freedom, the right to choose “what we want to be and how we want to be it”. And this, consequently, has to do with how we manage our money, with how we achieve our financial sovereignty. Therefore, if 11Onze wants to be a useful tool, it has to build a community that is encouraged to learn how the market works and how to navigate, financially speaking. It is in this sense that we have created La Plaça, where there is a team of 11Onze agents who will attend to users 24 hours a day, and why we have created the El Canut application. Everything serves the same objective.

Sène sums it up bluntly: “We have a plan at the service of a vision that has to serve the needs of today, but also respond to what we expect to happen in the world in five years’ time. That is why we are thinking about the community, the financial application, and a marketplace, a place where people can not only exchange ideas, but also, in the end, exchange products. Ultimately, says Sène, “if we have a financial nexus, this will make us more competitive, individually and collectively”.

Revolutionising banking from the bottom up

Thus, says the president of 11Onze, “when we make a profit, part of this profit will go back to the community and the other part will go to the investors or members of this community”. To make this possible, it is essential, says Sène, “to have absolute control of our finances, that is to say, of money, but also of assets, shares, precious metals or cryptocurrencies”. That is why El Canut is a new technology created to revolutionise traditional banking. “Now, everyone has all these assets spread across different accounts. And we have created a wallet of wallets that will empower you to manage all your finances in a single place. You have to be able to manage them quickly, easily, and securely,” says Sène.

In view of the expectation generated by El Canut, the president of 11Onze, however, appeals for calm. At 11Onze we are well aware that most of the community are not experts in banking and that we will have to learn, little by little and together, the best way to give a return on everyone’s money. For this reason, El Canut will slowly announce and expand its services. “It is not expected that on 1 October, when we open the first 5,000 accounts, everyone will be able to operate all at once in an unknown financial market. We have to be patient,” argues Sène.

“We are here to ensure the financial well-being of the Catalan Countries and to promote Catalan culture. We are here to give individual financial independence in order to achieve collective financial independence”, the president of 11Onze reaffirms. In short, the time has come for people to learn how to manage their assets in the best possible way. 11Onze is the tool to do so; it is one of the pillars for exercising all freedoms.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

Banking activity plays a key role in inflation. When credit is not dedicated to the productive economy, with the generation of new products or services, it artificially increases purchasing power, which breaks the balance between supply and demand and drives up prices.

The banking business does not work exactly as most people think it does. We tend to think of banks as mere financial intermediaries that receive money from their customers in the form of deposits to lend to other customers in the form of loans. And their profits are supposed to come from the spread between the interest they pay on the money they deposit and the interest they charge on the money they lend.

The reality is much more complex. What we call “deposits” are not deposits because they are not held in custody, but should be considered loans we make to the bank. At the same time, credits granted by a bank are not really loans as we understand them.

When we sign a loan, what the bank does is to buy our commitment to repay the nominal amount granted, which would be a promissory note. There is not necessarily a physical transfer of money from the bank to our account because what we call a “deposit” is nothing more than a book entry of an amount that the bank owes to the holder of that account.

This is how commercial banks artificially create money, as the Bank of Spain explains. In fact, the vast majority of deposits are generated out of thin air when banks grant credit, without being backed by real money. 

Productive or unproductive credit?

When this fictitious creation of money serves to finance the productive economy, making possible investments that generate new goods and services, the balance between supply and demand is maintained. There is more nominal money, but also more goods and services that can be purchased, so inflation does not increase.

However, if the bank artificially generates money for consumption and this is not followed by an increase in the volume of goods and services available on the market, the supply-demand equilibrium is broken. With more money available to buy the same volume of goods and services, inflation is generated. And, unfortunately, most lending is not productive, but rather is engaged in financial transactions that simply allow the transfer of property rights.

Hence, the desirability for regulation to provide for the categorisation of credit in order to avoid excessive speculative lending that triggers inflation. If most bank credits were used for productive purposes, we would have a more stable financial system and a healthy economy without inflation.

The current regulatory framework is flawed because it is based on the premise that banks are simply financial intermediaries, when in fact they artificially create money and cause an inflationary spiral, which often ends in the bursting of logical financial bubbles. 

A possible solution

Some countries have managed to avoid this problem thanks to financial systems dominated by community banks, which do not prioritise financial speculation but productive credit. In Germany, for example, such small banks dominate the market and allocate most of their lending to SMEs.

Undoubtedly, much of Germany’s economic success over the last 200 years is due to its financial system, which has never needed public money to bail out any of its banks, nor has it ever made its customers lose deposits. 

In order to stabilise and improve our economy, it would be advisable to break with the current logic of our financial system and promote the creation of community banks that prioritise the financing of the productive economy.

If you want your business to make a giant leap, use 11Onze Business. Our business and freelancer account is now available. Find out more!

Are you convinced that your financial decisions are always guided by reason? We are sorry to disappoint you. Some 180 biases have been identified that can condition our analysis of reality and our choices. From 11Onze, we present eleven of the most common ones.

Although we all like to think that we are rational and that our logic is infallible, the truth is that our decisions are constantly exposed to the influence of cognitive biases and some mental shortcuts that distort the analysis of reality. Their impact can condition the choices we make every day if we are unaware of their importance, including in the financial arena.

The scientific literature has already identified some 180 traps in our minds that can lead us to make wrong judgements. Some are quite obvious and you may recognise them in yourself or others. But others are so subtle that they are almost impossible to detect. 

Keep in mind that attention is a limited resource, so we cannot evaluate all the details and possibilities when making a decision. As a result, we often get carried away by emotions and subjective opinions, or resort to mental shortcuts that speed up our ability to make judgements and can lead us into error. From 11Onze, we present eleven of these traps and how to avoid them.

• Confirmation

This bias means that we tend to pay more attention to information that confirms our beliefs than to information that questions them. Who doesn’t like to be proved right? Overvaluing data that confirms our biases inhibits our critical capacity and prevents us from considering all facts logically and rationally.

So if we think that investing in a particular asset might be a good investment or that switching electricity companies will help us save money, we should not just look for information to support that decision. It is always good to listen to critical voices. Only by comparing the data for and against and weighing them objectively can we make a well-informed decision. 

• Anchoring

We are prone to be overly influenced by the initial information we receive, which we take as a point of reference. Thus, the first figure that appears in a price negotiation often becomes an anchor point for subsequent negotiations. It has been shown that even hearing a random figure can influence our estimates on a completely unrelated subject.

This is a bias to bear in mind when, for example, we negotiate the price of a house. If we are asked for a very high price and we manage to lower it a little, we may end up accepting the deal with the feeling that we have negotiated well even though the final amount is still above the market price. In reality, however, our counteroffer was probably heavily conditioned by the first price we asked for. Hence the importance of being well informed and avoiding rushing into a decision.

• Availability

This mental shortcut is designed to save us time when trying to determine risk. It leads us to estimate the probability of something happening based too much on the most accessible information in our brain, such as the number of examples that come to mind.

We tend to overestimate the likelihood of something happening based on how easily we remember something similar happening. This means that, for example, we often decide whether or not to take out home insurance based on whether one of our acquaintances recently suffered a serious domestic mishap. For this reason, it is always advisable to expand our information with external and more global data, which give a more realistic picture of the probability of something happening.

• Familiarity

This bias, which is closely linked to the availability bias, is summed up in the saying “better the bad you know than the good you don’t know”. We tend to trust the familiar and distrust the unfamiliar.

This is one of the main reasons why many people prefer to invest in domestic assets rather than foreign ones, even though the returns on the latter may be considerably higher.

• Exaggerated optimism

We tend to overestimate our capabilities and the likelihood of good things happening to us, while underestimating the likelihood of negative things happening to us. This bias is rooted in the availability shortcut, as we tend to accumulate more memories of the negative things that happen to other people and the good things that we experience ourselves. Hence, we find it more likely that negative events will affect others.

The good thing about this tendency towards optimism is that it motivates us to pursue our goals, but we should be humble and not relativise the risks we take. If the economic situation around us worsens, it is foolhardy to turn our backs on saving, thinking only that we will not be affected by the crisis.

• Representativeness

We think that two things are more likely to happen when they are similar or similar to each other. Our prejudices lead us to create stereotypes that serve as a basis for judgement. If we have had good experiences with expensive products, it is easy for us to assume that a product is of good quality simply because it has a high price, and this is not always the case. It never hurts to listen to the opinion of other users before purchasing.

• Halo effect

The initial impression we get of a person influences what we think of them in general. This is why we tend to believe that attractive people are also smarter, nicer and funnier. And, financially, that products marketed by such people are also more valuable.

One factor that can influence the halo effect is our tendency to want to get it right. If our initial impression of someone was positive, we will tend to look for evidence to confirm our first impression. Hence the importance of always maintaining a critical spirit. 

• Hindsight bias

This bias leads us to see events, even random ones, as more predictable than they really are. Yes, it is the typical “I knew it already” bias whereby so many people claim to have seen a crisis coming when they are already in the midst of it. It happens for a combination of reasons, including our ability to “misremember” previous predictions and the tendency to see events as inevitable.

The truth is that we make predictions all the time, so some of them are bound to come true. Our poor memory of the ones we fail to remember makes it easy for us to become overconfident about our predictions. And this can sometimes lead us to take unwise risks. The antidotes are prudence and humility.

• Gambler’s fallacy

This false belief describes our tendency to think that something will happen because it hasn’t happened yet. For example, if we play roulette and the last few times the ball has landed on red, we might mistakenly assume that the probability that the next outcome will be black is higher. However, these events are independent of each other, so there is no relationship between the probability of the two outcomes. This is something we should bear in mind when chaining bad investments together. Each must be accompanied by a specific analysis.

• Framework effect

As explained in another article, this cognitive bias means that the same information, presented in different ways, can lead to different conclusions. For example, you are more likely to agree to a financial transaction if you are told that there is a 60% chance that it will go well than if you are warned that there is a 40% chance that it will go badly.

This is a very important bias when making decisions that affect your finances. You should carefully assess the information they give you about any proposal they make to you, as it is probably designed to achieve their objectives, and rephrase the data so that it is as aseptic as possible.

• Loss aversion

Our fear of losing is often stronger than the pleasure we experience when we win. When we lose an amount of money, our sense of disappointment is greater than the joy we feel when we win the same amount of money. That is why, when faced with similar probabilities of success or failure, we tend to choose the conservative option.

Ground rules against biases

As the list of cognitive biases is very long, it is useful to apply four basic rules that will help you avoid most of them:

Reflect on past decisions. If you have been in a similar situation before, reflect on the outcomes of the decisions you made to avoid repeating certain biases. For example, because we tend to underestimate the amount of money we need, you can track your spending over the past few months to see how much money you need to budget.

Challenge your point of view. Try to see the weaknesses in your logic, however inconsequential they may seem to you, which is helped by lists of pros and cons. You may be more convinced of your decision if it stands up to serious and critical scrutiny.

Don’t make decisions under pressure. Haste is not a good companion. Although it may not seem like it, very few cases require immediate decisions. 

Include outside viewpoints. A second opinion is never a bad thing, so consult someone who is objective and has no stake in the decision. They can provide different points of view, challenge your opinions and detect your cognitive biases.

If you want your business to make a giant leap, use 11Onze Business. Our business and freelancer account is now available. Find out more!

Cryptocurrencies have revolutionised the global financial system, but like any new technology, they raise a lot of questions. We have prepared a small glossary of the basic terms you should understand getting started in the world of cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies, also known as digital currencies, are alternative currencies that can be defined as digital assets that use cryptographic encryption to guarantee their ownership, ensure the integrity of transactions, and control the creation of additional units. That said, there are a few key concepts to be clear about when understanding how cryptocurrencies work.

Blockchain

The blockchain is a technology that allows transactions between two or more people without the need for intermediaries. It is the ledger where all transactions are stored, and distributed on computers, which can be anywhere in the world, interconnected through a Peer-To-Peer (P2P) network, and without the need for a central server. It is a technology that facilitates the decentralisation of financial applications and any other digital records. Furthermore, it is also considered very secure because a record of everything that has happened on the network can only be changed if all parties agree.

Mining

While in the traditional monetary system, governments print money according to their needs, monetary creation in the ecosystem of the most popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, is limited. Moreover, cryptocurrencies are not issued and made available to everyone, they are put into circulation in encrypted blocks that have to be decrypted. This is where the concept of cryptocurrency mining comes from, a computational process by which a set of computers, the miners connected to the network, are given a new algorithm to solve a mathematical problem, which, once solved, is rewarded with a commission for issuing a new unit of the cryptocurrency, which is added to the blockchain.

Cryptocurrency wallets

Cryptocurrency wallets are virtual wallets by which we can manage our cryptocurrencies. The main difference with other virtual wallets that we can find in many banks lies in the security offered by their software, allowing absolute control of the public and private keys to sign transactions and operations executed with cryptocurrencies through the blockchain network. The use of these wallets is indispensable when managing cryptocurrency-based digital currencies that do not exist in the physical world.

Staking and Hodling

The concept of ‘staking’ consists of acquiring cryptocurrencies and keeping them locked in a wallet in order to support the security and functioning of the blockchain. In return, we receive a profit, or reward, in the form of additional cryptocurrencies. Hodl is a similar process, but in this case, the assets are not locked and you can use them freely. It is an option used by investors who want to hold their assets for a long period of time in the hope that they will appreciate in value.

Tokens

Although the concepts of token and cryptocurrency can be considered synonymous, the distinction lies in the fact that cryptocurrencies have their own blockchain, while tokens are issued on another blockchain, such as Ethereum. A token is a unit of value issued by a person or a private company, with which you can represent different objects within a blockchain. It is a transferable value within the blockchain network but has no real value outside of it, similar to what would happen if we had casino chips or airline points. Therefore, a token can have different purposes: from giving access to more functionalities in an online game, to being able to be exchanged for real objects, collecting, and participating in an event …

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

We have carried out a study of the costs of home insurance through a survey on the members of our community who are homeowners, with the aim of analysing the competitiveness of the product that we offer through 11Onze Segurs.

The survey was conducted by 11Onze through our Telegram channel with the participation of 279 users who responded to the question: “How much do you pay for your home insurance each year? They were given the option to choose from a range of prices ranging from €60 per year to more than €400.

The final data shows that 56% of users pay between €200 and €400 per year for their home insurance, while 22% spend between €100 and €200 per year. In addition, 18% pay more than €400 per year. These results are in line with the average annual price of home insurance in Spain, which is around €301 per year.

How much do you pay for your home insurance?

A more competitive alternative

At 11Onze Segurs we believe that you can reduce the cost of home insurance by optimising processes and personalising coverage. That’s why we have a completely digitalised platform, where we do away with paper contracts, physical agencies, management fees, cancellation and contract change fees, which is already a considerable saving, but we also let you modify and adapt the coverages to your needs at any time, before and after signing the contract.

In this way, we can offer you home insurance from €5 per month. Our policy is designed so that you do not pay more for your insurance, offering a monthly or annual fee, without permanence, between 15%-20% cheaper than with traditional insurers. What is the monthly cost of your current home insurance? Do you want to know how much you could save? Try our price simulator by entering some basic data, and you’ll get your no-obligation quote instantly.

If you want to discover fair insurance for your home and for society, check 11Onze Segurs.

Traditional banking is likely to disappear sooner rather than later. And security tools such as biometrics and cryptography will help protect us from fraud.

The world of finance is changing fast. Fintechs are overtaking traditional financial institutions, above all because they are committed to combining technology and customer service. All with the aim that new technological advances will allow increasingly simple, but more secure, operations. We see it!

1. Services in the cloud. Financial institutions will increasingly organise their services via the internet. This is why financial applications are constantly innovating: they are looking for more and more transactions to be carried out in the cloud.
2. Artificial intelligence, an essential tool. This technology is much more sophisticated and has a significant influence on the internet of things, on the management of ‘big data’, on facial and optical recognition and on the ‘blockchain’, which is the structure with which the new financial institutions will work.
3. Mobile finance made easier. The so-called ‘mobile banking’ system is not new. Still, it will be increasingly easier to use: it will provide greater accessibility and incorporate one-click payments from customer to customer. In addition, customer-to-business ‘digital banking’ will no longer rely on passwords.
4. More blockchain. Blockchain software vendors will attract the interest of organisations that want to accelerate their performance. With blockchain, they will achieve more cost-effective operations.
5. Next-generation cashpoints. It is expected that, in the not-too-distant future, we will be operating cashpoints without having to use a card, directly with our mobile phones. Some cashpoints around the world, in fact, already incorporate biometric authentication or iris recognition.
6. Security, security, security. This is a constant concern for financial institutions, which will be looking to include new protection services for their customers. Biometrics will be commonly used to access financial data.
7. Links between financial institutions. Experts have realised that financial institutions can reduce costs and facilitate customer services by partnering with each other. Working collectively advances innovation and establishes healthier cooperation.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

If we have money saved up, and we are paying a mortgage, we may have doubts about whether it is worthwhile to repay the mortgage loan before the established deadline. Coral Santacruz, from the 11Onze product team, details the advantages and disadvantages of early repayment.

The cancellation or partial or total repayment of the mortgage loan consists of reducing or totally paying off the outstanding debt you have with the financial entity before the term established in the contract. In other words, using your savings to cancel or pay off part of the debt with the bank.

Although a priori it may seem a good idea to use saved money to repay or reduce a mortgage loan before the deadline, everything will depend on the repayment conditions that have been signed in the mortgage contract.

Reducing instalments or amortisation period

If we decide to make a partial repayment, we can reduce the amount of the instalment (in reference to the capital and interest), or the term (the time it will take to repay the loan). Therefore, “we have to assess which of the two options is the most viable for us, depending on whether we want to settle the loan or pay less each month,” says Santacruz.

Regardless of which option we choose, we will have to inform the financial entity of our desire to amortise the mortgage and explain the typology we want to apply for. We have to bear in mind that applying this process has a cost, as Santacruz explains, “it is the commission for early repayment, and when signing the mortgage we will have to look at what conditions the financial entity offers us in this regard”.

If you want to discover fair insurance for your home and for society, check 11Onze Segurs.