Time-lock is a very simple feature that can be applied to any money pool or piggy bank (but not your General Savings pool). If you apply a Time-lock to a money pool of piggy bank then a 7-day delay will be applied to any withdrawal request. You should only apply a time-lock to savings that you do not need immediate access to.
If you do instruct a withdrawal it will take 7-days before the money moves. During this period you can cancel the withdrawal request any time.
It is primarily designed for personal versus business use, but as there can be legitimate business uses for this feature we have made it available for businesses too.
You can continue to deposit into a 'time-locked' pool with no delay. Delays only apply to withdrawals.
Why might you use a time-lock?
There are many reasons why customers use time-locks, here are just a few:
For Business Self Discipline
Help remove the temptation of 'dipping' into business savings. Adding a 7-day delay helps you mitigate any unnecessary spend.
Peace of Mind Against Scammers
Scammers are increasingly targeting businesses as the payouts can be larger. One way to mitigate this is to put business savings you don't need immediate access to, into a time-locked money pool. That way even if you instructed a withdrawal you have 7-days to cancel it.
Plus, if you want you have the option of adding the email address of someone you trust to be notified if a withdrawal instruction is made. Your trusted person will be notified immediately, allowing them to speak to you and check that you intended to make the withdrawal (the amount is not shared, just the fact that a withdrawal was instructed).
Peace of Mind Against Losing Phone
These days we carry so much of our lives on our phone. If our phone were to get lost or stolen it would be very stressful, and we'd immediately need to start taking action to protect ourselves including contacting our phone carrier, banks, and more.
Your banking apps, and money, should be safe, as all regulated financial companies have high levels of security, however you could take that one step further and apply a time-lock to savings you don't need immediate access to, just so you know that you'll definitely have time to sort out your Marygold savings without panicking.
How Does it Work? An Example
If you made a withdrawal request at 10am on Monday 2nd September, the funds would not leave your money pool or piggy bank until 10am Monday 9th September.
You can turn of the Time-Lock feature, but this takes 7 days to take effect. Any withdrawals made during the time in between turning off time-lock, and the time-lock being turned off with be subject to a 7-day payment delay.
So to be clear, if you decided:
- to turn 'off' time-lock on 10 am Monday 2nd September (which would take effect from 10am Monday 9th September), then
- instructed a withdrawal on Wednesday 4th September, then
- your withdrawal will be processed on Wednesday 11th September (7 days after instruction, and after the time-lock would be removed on the pool).
So once you have turned on a time-lock to any pool, the quickest you'll ever be able to withdraw your money from that pool is 7-days, and could be longer if you instructed a withdrawal shortly after turning the time-lock off.
If you have chosen to add a trusted person to be notified via email, then this person will receive the following emails:
- An initial notification that they have been added as your trusted person
- An email if you instruct a withdrawal on the day it is instructed
- An email if you cancel a previously instructed withdrawal
- An email one day before any open withdrawal payment is due to be paid
- An email if they are removed as the trusted person
- An email if the time-lock is turned off