What Do RSA Retail Savings Bonds Pay?
Fixed · 5 year
until 31 August 2026 — a new rate every month
Inflation linked · 5 year
until 30 November 2026 — a real rate, not a lower one
Top up · 3 year
until 30 September 2026 — compounds quarterly
Inflation · June 2026
up from 4.5% the month before
Not a home loan. In South Africa “bond” usually means a mortgage. This page is about the opposite thing: RSA Retail Savings Bonds are a way of lending money to the government and being paid interest for it. If you came looking for what a home loan costs, this is not that page.
The rates in force right now
RSA Fixed Rate Retail Savings Bond
1 August 2026 to 31 August 2026A new rate is published at the start of every month.2 year
8.00%nominal3 year
8.25%nominal5 year
8.75%nominalRSA Inflation Linked Retail Savings Bond
1 June 2026 to 30 November 2026A new rate is published every six months, running June to November and December to May.3 year
4.25%real5 year
4.50%real10 year
4.75%realThese are real rates. The capital is adjusted by CPI every six months and the rate is paid on top of that, so they are not smaller versions of the numbers above — they are a different measurement. At the latest published inflation figure the five-year is running at ≈9.73%nominal at 5.0% CPI (June 2026), and that figure moves with inflation while the fixed rates do not.
RSA Retail Savings Top Up Bond
1 July 2026 to 30 September 2026A new rate is published every three months.3 year
8.25%nominalThree products, three publishing schedules. Fixed rates change monthly, inflation-linked every six months, the top-up bond every quarter — which is why our sources page carries three separate entries for this section rather than one.
What your money does
Interest before tax and after it, payment by payment, at the rates above.
What you are paid
Certain. The rate is contractual and does not move for the term.
- You put inR100,000.00
- Interest over 5 years · 10 paymentsR43,750.00
- Capital back + interestR143,750.00
In today's money
An assumption, not a return. True only if inflation runs at 5.0% — June 2026's published rate — for the whole 5 years.
- Interest, each payment valued at the date it arrivesR38,350.68
- Capital back, after 5 years of inflationR78,352.62
- Total in today's moneyR116,703.30
- Unlike the inflation-linked bond, nothing here protects the capital: it comes back at par and is worth R21,647 less than it was.
After tax
Charged on interest as it is received, so on the figures on the left. The exemption is applied year by year; it does not carry forward.
- Interest received over the termR43,750.00
- Interest covered by the exemptionR43,750.00
- Interest above it, and taxableR0.00
- Tax at 31%−R0.00
- Interest you keepR43,750.00
The allowance is R23,800 in each of the 5 tax years the term touches. A year that uses less than its share does not lend the rest to a year that needs more, which is why this is worked out year by year rather than as one figure over the term.
Show every interest payment →
| Payment | Year | Balance it is worked out on | Interest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | R100,000.00 | R4,375.00 |
| 2 | 1 | R100,000.00 | R4,375.00 |
| 3 | 2 | R100,000.00 | R4,375.00 |
| 4 | 2 | R100,000.00 | R4,375.00 |
| 5 | 3 | R100,000.00 | R4,375.00 |
| 6 | 3 | R100,000.00 | R4,375.00 |
| 7 | 4 | R100,000.00 | R4,375.00 |
| 8 | 4 | R100,000.00 | R4,375.00 |
| 9 | 5 | R100,000.00 | R4,375.00 |
| 10 | 5 | R100,000.00 | R4,375.00 |
| Total | R43,750.00 |
Interest is worked out to the cent on each payment date, the way an account does, so these figures will match a statement rather than a formula. Every six months, on 31 March and 30 September each year. Interest is paid out and does not compound unless you reinvest it, in which case it joins the capital at the same rate. The exemption is annual and applies to all local interest a person earns, not only to these bonds — if you have interest elsewhere, less of this is covered. This is information, not tax advice.
Almost every article about these bonds compares the wrong two numbers
Open any personal-finance piece on RSA Retail Savings Bonds and you will find a table with the fixed rates in one column and the inflation-linked rates in the next. The fixed numbers are large. The inflation-linked numbers are about half the size. The reader draws the obvious conclusion, and the obvious conclusion is wrong.
The inflation-linked rate is a real rate. It is not what the bond pays; it is what the bond pays on top of inflation. The capital itself is adjusted by the consumer price index every six months, and the rate is applied to the adjusted capital. So the two numbers are not two prices for the same thing. One is a total; the other is a margin over a total that has not happened yet.
Putting them in one column is like tabulating a salary next to a raise and letting the reader decide which is bigger. It is not a subtle error and it is not a rounding difference. At the inflation rates South Africa has actually had this decade, the gap between the two columns as printed and the two instruments as they behave is several percentage points a year.
So on this page a fixed rate and an inflation-linked rate never share a column, a chart line or a sort order. Where they appear near each other, one is labelled nominal and the other real, every time, without an option to switch the label off. Where the page converts between them it shows the conversion and states the inflation rate the conversion holds at — because the converted number stops being true the moment inflation moves, and the rate it was converted from does not.
There is a check in this repository that fails the build if a later edit breaks that rule. The mistake is easy to reintroduce and impossible to spot in a screenshot, which is exactly the kind of mistake worth spending a test on.
Where the two actually cross
Which of the two is better depends entirely on what inflation does over the term, and nobody knows that. What can be worked out exactly is where the line sits: the average inflation rate at which the inflation-linked bond overtakes the fixed one at the same term.
| Term | Fixed rate — what it pays | Inflation linked — paid on top of CPI | They break even at |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 years | 8.25%nominal | 4.25%real | 3.84% inflation |
| 5 years | 8.75%nominal | 4.50%real | 4.07% inflation |
Worked out from (1 + fixed) ÷ (1 + real) − 1, which is the inflation rate that makes the two pay the same. The full relation, not the subtract-one-from-the-other shortcut: at 5.0% inflation the shortcut is out by about a fifth of a percentage point, and over ten years that is real money. The inflation figure quoted alongside is one month — June 2026 — not an average over any of these terms. Both bonds also carry the same twelve-month lock-in and the same withdrawal penalty, so the crossover is the only thing that differs.
At five years the line is at 4.07% average inflation. Below that, the fixed bond wins; above it, the inflation-linked one does. The latest published inflation figure is 5.0% for June 2026 — but a single month is not an average over five years, and this page does not tell you where inflation goes next. It tells you where the line is.
Where the tax exemption runs out
Interest is taxable, but the first R23,800 of local interest a year is exempt — R34,500 from 65. So a lot of people pay nothing on these bonds at all, up to a point that can be worked out exactly.
| Fixed rate bond | Rate | Exemption used up at | From age 65 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 year | 8.00%nominal | R297,500 | R431,250 |
| 3 year | 8.25%nominal | R288,485 | R418,182 |
| 5 year | 8.75%nominal | R272,000 | R394,286 |
At the two-year fixed rate of 8.00% nominal, R297,500 of capital produces exactly the exemption in a year — R431,250 from 65. These figures move every month the rate does, so they are worked out from the live rate rather than written down. The exemption is annual and covers all local interest a person earns, not only these bonds — a bank account paying interest eats into the same allowance. 2026/27 figures, from the National Treasury Budget tax guide. This is information, not tax advice.
The tax exemption is why small investors often pay nothing
Interest from these bonds is taxable. It is added to your income and taxed at your marginal rate, the same as interest from a bank account. That is the part most explanations stop at, and stopping there overstates the tax most people will actually pay.
South Africa exempts the first slice of local interest a natural person earns each year. Below that line, interest is tax-free. Above it, only the excess is taxed. The exemption is larger from age 65. Both figures are set in the Budget and both are on this page, read from the tax guide for the current year rather than carried forward from last year — they do move, and an out-of-date exemption produces an answer that is confidently wrong.
The useful consequence is that there is an amount of capital below which these bonds are entirely untaxed, and it can be worked out exactly: interest in a full year is capital times rate, so the ceiling is the exemption divided by the rate. This page works it out from the live rate rather than printing a number, because the fixed rate changes at the start of every month and any figure typed into a sentence would be wrong within weeks.
Two things worth being plain about. The exemption is annual and applies to all local interest a person earns, not only to interest from these bonds — a savings account, a money market fund and a retail bond all draw on the same allowance, so if you have interest elsewhere, less of this is covered. And this is a description of how the exemption works, not tax advice about your situation.
The rules that decide whether it suits you
| Fixed Rate | Inflation Linked | Top Up | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | R1,000 | R1,000 | R500, then R100 to add more |
| Terms | 2, 3, 5 years | 3, 5, 10 years | 3 years |
| Interest paid | Every six months — 31 March and 30 September each year | Every six months — 31 May and 30 November each year | Every three months — 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December |
| What happens to it | Paid out, or reinvested at the same rate if you choose | Paid out; there is no option to reinvest it | Added to the capital and earns interest itself |
| Capital | Fixed — it does not move with inflation | Adjusted for inflation every six months | Fixed — it does not move with inflation |
| Locked in for | 12 months | 12 months | 12 months |
| Taking it out after that | Roughly one interest payment on the amount withdrawn. | Roughly one interest payment on the amount withdrawn. | Roughly one interest payment on the amount withdrawn. |
| Taking it out before | Only in extraordinary changes in personal circumstances, and all interest on the amount withdrawn is forfeited. | Only in extraordinary changes in personal circumstances, and all interest on the amount withdrawn is forfeited. | Only in extraordinary changes in personal circumstances, and all interest on the amount withdrawn is forfeited. |
| Rolling over | After twelve months a restart option lets an investor move to the best rate then on offer. | No stated rollover bonus | Reinvesting for another three-year term adds a once-off 20 basis points (0.20%) to the amount rolled over. |
| Who can buy | Natural persons who are South African citizens or permanent residents. Informal groups may invest with constitution documents. | Natural persons who are South African citizens or permanent residents. Informal groups may invest with constitution documents. | Natural persons who are South African citizens or permanent residents. Minors need parental consent. Informal groups may invest with constitution documents. |
| New rates | A new rate is published at the start of every month. | A new rate is published every six months, running June to November and December to May. | A new rate is published every three months. |
From National Treasury's own product terms. The twelve-month lock-in is the one most people miss: before a year is up, money can be taken out only in extraordinary changes of personal circumstance, and every rand of interest earned on the amount withdrawn is forfeited. There is no ranking here and no “best for” column — which of these suits somebody depends on facts about them that this page does not know.
Twenty-two years of rates
Today's rate against every rate Treasury has published since these bonds launched. This is context, not a signal — the shape of the past says nothing about where the next monthly rate lands.
Fixed rate, 5 year
8.75%nominalA new rate at the start of every month since June 2004. This is what the bond pays, in full.
- Highest nominal
- 11.75% · 2023
- Lowest nominal
- 7.00% · 2012
- Published rates
- 267
Inflation linked, 5 year
4.50%realA new rate every six months since July 2007. This is what the bond pays on top of inflation — the axis is not the same axis.
- Highest real
- 5.25% · 2024
- Lowest real
- 1.25% · 2011
- Published rates
- 38
Two charts, not one, and two different vertical scales. Drawing a real rate and a nominal rate on the same axis would put the inflation-linked line in a flat strip along the bottom and invite exactly the conclusion this page exists to correct. For scale, inflation itself was 5.0% in June 2026. Treasury publishes 38 inflation-linked windows and lists one more — June to November 2012 — with no rate at all; that gap is theirs, and we show it as a gap rather than joining the line across it.
What twenty-two years of rates does and does not tell you
These bonds have been on sale since 2004, and Treasury publishes every rate it has ever set. That is an unusually complete public record: a new fixed rate at the start of every month for more than two decades, and an inflation-linked rate every six months since 2007.
It is worth having for one reason and one reason only — scale. A rate quoted on its own is a number without a size. The same rate against everything published before it tells you whether today is a high point, a low point or an unremarkable middle, and that is a genuinely useful thing to know before deciding whether to lock money up for five years.
It tells you nothing about next month. The monthly fixed rate follows Treasury's own funding costs, which follow the bond market, which follows the repo rate, inflation expectations and a good deal else besides. A chart that has gone up for six months is not a reason to expect a seventh. This page shows the shape of the past and stops there; there is no trend line, no projection and no "rates are expected to", because the honest version of that sentence is that nobody publishing it knows.
One detail in the record is worth pointing out rather than smoothing over. Treasury lists a six-month inflation-linked window in 2012 with no rate published at all. We show it as a gap rather than drawing the line across it, because a chart that quietly interpolates a missing observation is telling you something the source did not.
What a year's interest actually buys here
This is a national instrument on a Cape Town site, so it should earn its place. Every other section here measures money leaving a household. Put R100,000 in the 2-year fixed bond at 8.00% and a year of interest comes to R8,000.00, or R666.67 a month. Against the bills on this site:
| What | It costs a month | Months a year's interest covers |
|---|---|---|
| A month of foodPMBEJD basket for 7, July 2026 | R5,367 | 1.5 |
| A month of water15kl on a 15mm meter, sanitation and fixed charges included | R1,065 | 7.5 |
| A month on MyCiTithe monthly pass, at the gazetted fare | R1,500 | 5.3 |
Interest is worked out by the same function as the calculator above, and each cost is read live from the section it links to, at that section's own date. At this rate a year's interest on R100,000 is entirely inside the R23,800 annual interest exemption, so none of it is taxed — assuming no other local interest, which is a big assumption. This is a comparison of published figures, not a suggestion about what anyone should do with R100,000.
Common questions
Are RSA Retail Savings Bonds the same as a home loan bond?
No, and the word is doing two completely different jobs. In everyday South African English a "bond" is a mortgage — money you borrow to buy a house. An RSA Retail Savings Bond is the opposite: money you lend to the government, which pays you interest for it. Nothing on this page has anything to do with home loans.
Why is the inflation-linked rate so much lower than the fixed rate?
It is not lower — it is a different measurement. The inflation-linked rate is a real rate, paid on top of inflation, on capital that Treasury adjusts by the consumer price index every six months. The fixed rate is everything the fixed bond will ever pay. Comparing the two directly is the single most common mistake in writing about these bonds. This page shows the conversion, and the inflation rate at which the two break even.
Which bond should I buy?
This page does not answer that, and will not. Which of these suits somebody depends on their tax position, how long they can leave the money alone, whether they need the interest paid out, and a view on inflation over the term — none of which this page knows. What it does is set out what each one pays, what the rules are, and where the arithmetic crosses, so the decision can be made on figures rather than on a ranking somebody else wrote.
How much can I invest before I pay tax on the interest?
There is an exact answer and this page works it out from the live rate: the annual interest exemption divided by the rate. Above that amount the excess interest is taxed at your marginal rate. Two caveats matter. The exemption is annual and covers all local interest you earn, not just these bonds, so a bank account paying interest uses up the same allowance. And the exemption is larger from age 65.
Can I take my money out early?
Not in the first twelve months, except in extraordinary changes of personal circumstance — and if you do, you forfeit all the interest earned on the amount withdrawn. After twelve months you can withdraw, but it costs roughly one interest payment on the amount taken out. The lock-in is the same on all three bonds.
When is interest paid?
It depends on the bond. The fixed rate bond pays on 31 March and 30 September, with a monthly option available, and interest can be paid out or reinvested at the same rate. The inflation-linked bond pays on 31 May and 30 November, and there is no option to reinvest. The top-up bond capitalises quarterly, on 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December, so its interest earns interest.
What is the minimum investment?
One thousand rands for the fixed rate and inflation-linked bonds. Five hundred for the top-up bond, which then lets you add as little as a hundred rands at a time — that flexibility is the whole point of it. There is no maximum on any of them.
Who is allowed to invest?
Natural persons who are South African citizens or permanent residents. Not companies and not trusts. Minors can hold a top-up bond with parental consent, and informal groups such as stokvels can invest if they provide constitution documents.
How often do the rates change?
Three different schedules, which is why this section appears three times on our sources page. The fixed rate changes at the start of every month. The inflation-linked rate is set for six months at a time, running June to November and December to May. The top-up rate is set quarterly. A rate you see here is good until the end of its own window, and the window is shown next to it.
What happens if I roll over at the end of the term?
On the top-up bond, reinvesting for another three-year term adds a once-off 20 basis points — a fifth of a percentage point — to the amount rolled over. On the fixed rate bond there is a restart option after twelve months that moves you to the best rate then on offer, but no stated bonus. Treasury does not publish a rollover bonus for the inflation-linked bond.
Methodology and sources
Every rate on this page comes from National Treasury's own RSA Retail Savings Bonds site — the current rates page for what is in force, and the rate history page for everything before it. Not from personal-finance summaries: several of them carry stale tables, and all of them make the mistake described above.
The history is scraped rather than transcribed, and three assertions gate it before a single row is written. The newest figure for every rate must reproduce exactly what the current rates page says is in force — that is what catches an off-by-one in the month columns, which would shift twenty-two years of rates by a month and look entirely plausible. Every complete year must carry twelve monthly fixed rates, with the launch year and the current year allowed to be partial but not to have holes in the middle. And the inflation-linked windows must each be six months, contiguous, with no overlap and no gap in the calendar. If any of those fails the extractor exits without writing anything.
The effective windows are stored, not inferred from when we happened to look. A rate that expires at the end of this month should look like a rate that expires at the end of this month, and that only works if the end date came from the source.
The interest exemption, the tax brackets and the rebates are read from the National Treasury Budget tax guide for the current tax year. The inflation figure is the headline consumer price index from the most recent Statistics South Africa release, quoted with the month it describes, because a conversion between a real and a nominal rate is only true at a stated inflation rate.
Interest is worked out in whole cents, rounded on each payment date the way an account does, rather than by a compound-interest formula. Over a twenty-year term the two differ, and a figure that matches a statement is more useful than one that matches a formula.
Three sources, three schedules. Fixed rates change monthly, inflation-linked every six months, the top-up bond quarterly. Our sources page tracks all three separately, with three separate tolerances, because a monthly rate checked against a six-month tolerance could sit five months out of date while still reporting itself current.
- National Treasury — current RSA Retail Savings Bond rates
- National Treasury — rate history
- National Treasury — product terms, minimums and withdrawal rules
- National Treasury Budget 2026/27 tax guide — the interest exemption and the brackets
- Statistics South Africa P0141, June 2026 — the inflation anchor
This page explains an instrument. It does not tell anyone what to do with their money: there are no recommendations, no rankings and no forecasts here, and there will not be. It is information, not financial or tax advice.
Read next
rent
What a month costs
Rent, electricity, water, transport and food against one wage — the other side of this page.
Read →groceries
What inflation actually feels like
A month of food priced item by item, which is where CPI stops being an abstraction.
Read →sources
Three entries for one section
Why the freshness board tracks each of these three rates separately.
Read →