The 5-Year RSA Retail Savings Bond
Fixed Rate
until 31 August 2026
Inflation Linked
until 30 November 2026
They break even at
average over the 5 years, not one month
What R100,000 does over 5 years
- Interest on the fixed rate bond at 8.75% nominal, paid every six months over 10 paymentsR43,750.00
- Covered by 5 years of the interest exemptionR43,750.00
- Tax at a 31% marginal rate−R0.00
- Capital plus interest keptR143,750.00
A 31% marginal rate is used here as an illustration, not an assumption about you — the calculator on the main page takes your own bracket, your age and any amount. At this rate the exemption is used up at R272,000 of capital, or R394,286 from age 65.
Which of the two wins at 5 years
If inflation averages more than 4.07% over the 5 years, the inflation-linked bond pays more. Below that, the fixed one does. That is the whole comparison, and it is exact — what nobody can tell you is which side of the line inflation will land on, so this page does not try. For scale, inflation was 5.0% in June 2026, which would put the inflation-linked bond at ≈9.73%nominal at 5.0% CPI (June 2026) — but one month is not an average over 5 years.
Not available at this term
- RSA Retail Savings Top Up Bond runs to 3 years only, so there is no 5-year version of it. That is a fact about the product, not a gap in this table.
This term over the years
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.
Read next
savings
All three bonds, with the calculator
Every current rate, the tax exemption ceiling, the rules, and twenty-two years of history.
Read →2 year
The 2-year bond
Rates, the break-even inflation rate at 2 years, and what R100,000 does over that term.
Read →3 year
The 3-year bond
Rates, the break-even inflation rate at 3 years, and what R100,000 does over that term.
Read →