When customers make card purchases, a pre-agreed sum is added to the purchase amount, after which it is transferred to a savings account of the customer's choice. Nordea's ePiggy service is the first of its kind in Finland.

The service enables the customer to make small but regular savings. Whenever customers make card purchases, the ePiggy service transfers a pre-agreed fixed sum or a sum rounded off to the nearest one, five or ten euros to a savings account chosen by the customer.

- This is actually a very traditional way of saving: residual amounts from a purchase are put into a piggy bank, but this is done in an electronic form. Finns are frequent card users and the ePiggy rewards them for this; savings accrue quickly, when small sums are saved with each card purchase. Many people prefer to save a little often rather than saving a big amount once, says Jussi Mekkonen, Nordea's Head of Household in Finland.

The service requires customers to have a current account with a card linked to the account. They also need another account to which the savings are transferred. The ePiggy service is attached to all cards linked to an account. Credit purchases are not included in the service. Savings are transferable for example to the customer's own account, the account of a child or grandchild or even an account of a charity organisation provided the account is in Nordea. The customers can also put a daily limit on the amount or they can put savings on hold.

The ePiggy service agreement is made in Nordea's Netbank, where customers can also change savings method, amount saved, or the designated savings account. They can also put savings on hold.