Target Account Winner - Apr 2020

Posted on 09 April 2020

The Easter Bunny came a little late for Sally this year. 

 

But it was worth the wait.

Sally Austin thought it was a practical joke when Greg Dykzeul, Motueka Branch Manager from the Nelson Building Society, called to tell her she’d won NBS’s Easter Draw - a brand new 2020 Subaru XV.

“I honestly didn’t think it was real,” she says. “He suggested I have a look at the NBS website – my son-in-law checked and confirmed it. “I’m still in disbelief.”

Sally officially won the car back on April 7th, but couldn’t see her prize until the move to COVID-19 Alert Level Two. On Tuesday 19th May, she took it for its first spin to pick up her granddaughters (Ruby, 11, and Nina, 9) from school.

My daughter is a nurse so I’m caring for the girls while she works through this time. I headed off in the car, is wasn’t not as intimidating as I expected, being so new! The kids were over the moon and we turned the sounds up and had a little car party to celebrate.”

NBS has been running target account promotions like this for over 15 years. Greg says it’s a great feeling to call someone and give them such exciting news, and it was particularly good to do this during the stressful time of lockdown.

"Once she realised it was true, she was absolutely chuffed. She said she’d never won anything before and never owned a new car.”

Sally said “If you knew the history of my cars over the years, you would understand how unbelievable this is.”

“My first car was a horse and cart,” she laughs. “And it wasn’t totally mine, it was shared around. Most of my life I’ve driven cars with the possibility they’d leave me stranded on the side of the road.

In fact, when she walked into the local Motueka Branch of NBS two years ago, she set up a Target Savings Account with the knowledge that her vehicle was on its last legs and she’d need to replace it. 

“They told me the Target account put me in the draw to win a car, but I just forgot about it because I thought, there’s no chance it’d be me.

NBS has been really good, I like that they’re local and I can go in and talk to someone, and I like how community-minded they are.”

Commercial Manager Howie Timms said that every $100 in a person’s Target account counts as an entry, and they draw a winner three times a year.

"Usually we get to surprise the recipient by showing up with the car, but lockdown meant Sally had a fair bit of anticipation built up.”

Sally’s granddaughters Ruby and Nina were also counting the days, and spent the time drawing pictures of the car, going driving, and a portrait of Sally receiving the car with instructions on what she should wear.

“I let them down a bit on that one,” she laughs.

“Honestly, I’m feeling very, very lucky, and I’m so grateful to NBS. We’re really just absolutely delighted.”

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