Published: 15 March 2012
With 10 journalists competing ferociously over seven days, the moneysmart Budget Challenge had the social media world abuzz as each contender attempted to outsmart the others, gain followers and win R10 000 for a charity of their choice.
In the end it was Dale Imerman of Mojodojo who bested the rest with his budgeting savvy and picked up the moola from moneysmart to donate to his chosen charity, the Starfish Greathearts Foundation.
Socially integrated into the lives of its users, South Africa’s first, free online personal financial management platform, moneysmart enables users to take control of their finances by increasing financial literacy and providing a comprehensive financial overview to allow for setting of financial goals and dreams.
“Knowing your financial status and learning how to budget are the first steps to attaining financial freedom and, in hoping to affect social change, moneysmart wanted to create awareness around the severity of our country’s personal finance situation but in an entertaining way,” says moneysmart CEO Tobie Van Zyl.
In the moneysmart Budget Challenge, 10 bank accounts of R1 500 each were opened for every journalist along with internet banking facilities and a transactional card. As the only online financial platform in constant communication with South Africa’s banks, moneysmart opened these accounts across five of the country’s leading financial institutions.
Each journalist was then required to share budgeting activities with moneysmart daily, in order for financial scores to be updated on the dedicated Budget Challenge Facebook page.
Amongst the banks, Capitec’s Global One account came out tops for time taken to open an account, the lowest monthly fee, the lowest deposit fee and the cost of using another bank’s ATM. FNB’s Silver Cheque account was best in terms of using it own ATMs (free) while FNB, Standard Bank. Capitec and Nedbank offered free internet banking (only ABSA charge for this) with Nedbank and Standard offering free SMS notifications.
http://mediaupdate.co.za
Friday 16 March 2012
Monday 12 March 2012
Capitec reveals pricing for 2012
Mar 11 2012 12:07 Fiona Zerbst
CAPITEC has released its bank fees for the year and there are a few changes, but the monthly administration fee remains unchanged at R4.50.
This is an interesting decision as both Standard Bank Group [JSE:SBK] and Absa Group [JSE:ASA] have introduced no monthly fee accounts as part of their initiative to create low-cost banking.
Capitec Bank Holdings [JSE:CPI] makes the point that its monthly charge of R4.50 has remained the same for the past three years, regardless of how you transact and what your savings or credit activity is like.
Absa, for example, required the customer to earn R2 000 a month in order to qualify for no monthly fee.
With the low-price banking wars heating up, customers need to shop around and understand the packages they sign up for. But you do need to choose a product most closely aligned with your banking behaviour. You can save small but significant amounts if you transact wisely.
So what do you get if you bank with Capitec? Let’s look at what’s changed:
The monthly fee is unchanged;
Transfers have gone down by R1 – you will now pay R3 to make a payment to a Capitec Bank account or another bank account if you use your card. This costs R1.50 if you transact using the internet;
A cash withdrawal from a Capitec ATM has gone up from R3.75 to R4, while withdrawals from any Saswitch ATM remained the same at R7;
To create, update or cancel a stop order in your branch will now cost you R4; it cost R3.75 previously;
A stop order has increased from R2.75 to R3 in branch and is R1.50 via internet;
A returned debit order has increased from R3.75 to R4 (a Naedo returned debit order is free - most clients’ debit orders are Naedo debit orders – in other words early debit orders - very few organisations still use the old normal debit order); and
The cost of a statement requested in your bank’s branch has gone up from R2.75 to R3.
Online transacting
Banks are encouraging customers to transact online to save money, which is why you pay more to transact at branches. Capitec offers free internet and mobile banking (AbsaTransact offers free mobile banking), and each transaction you make costs R1.50 (half the cost in a branch).
But note the restrictions:
You can make payments to a Capitec Bank account or another bank account via the internet, and create, update or cancel a debit order – but that’s the extent of the transactions you can make.
With your cellphone, you can make a payment to a Capitec Bank account, as well as top up airtime and electricity.
Capitec’s prepaid airtime purchase is free if you top up with your cellphone (Capitec doesn’t yet offer airtime purchases via internet banking, but may do so in the future).
With FNB’s EasyPlan, you pay R1 for a prepaid top-up via the internet, and R2.95 for a payment. Transfers and balance enquiries are free.
In terms of cellphone banking, you can perform the same transactions, as well as send money to FNB’s e-Wallet. But note that you pay R8.50 a month to subscribe to cellphone and internet banking.
The ATM debate
At Capitec Bank the R7 fee for withdrawing at another bank’s ATM remains the same, irrespective of the amount you withdraw.
Withdrawals at Capitec ATMs are pricier – but withdrawal from another bank's ATM is still the cheapest of all the banks.
The closest comparable fee here is FNB’s EasyPlan option – you pay R7.70 to use another bank’s ATM.
That said, Charl Nel, head of strategic communication at Capitec, says that ATMs are not a cost-efficient way of giving consumers access to their money, so there are no plans to roll out more Capitec ATMs – in fact, ATMs should be a last resort.
Cheaper options include swiping for goods with your card at no cost. Getting cash back at one of the 36 000 till points at participating retailers costs R1, says Nel.
Capitec doesn’t see itself in competition with AbsaTransact, for example, as you need to have a minimum of R2 000 flowing into your AbsaTransact account each month or you pay a R25 fee; and there is also no internet banking available on this plan.
Penalty fees
Absa is also the first bank to completely waive penalty fees for bounced debit orders and insufficient funds at ATM withdrawals or point of sale.
Capitec's Global One account charges R3.75 (this is R4.00 and if it is a Naedo debit order – early debit order – then it is free) penalty fees for these types of transactions and FNB EasyPlan has a R5 penalty charge.
- City Press
http://www.fin24.com
CAPITEC has released its bank fees for the year and there are a few changes, but the monthly administration fee remains unchanged at R4.50.
This is an interesting decision as both Standard Bank Group [JSE:SBK] and Absa Group [JSE:ASA] have introduced no monthly fee accounts as part of their initiative to create low-cost banking.
Capitec Bank Holdings [JSE:CPI] makes the point that its monthly charge of R4.50 has remained the same for the past three years, regardless of how you transact and what your savings or credit activity is like.
Absa, for example, required the customer to earn R2 000 a month in order to qualify for no monthly fee.
With the low-price banking wars heating up, customers need to shop around and understand the packages they sign up for. But you do need to choose a product most closely aligned with your banking behaviour. You can save small but significant amounts if you transact wisely.
So what do you get if you bank with Capitec? Let’s look at what’s changed:
The monthly fee is unchanged;
Transfers have gone down by R1 – you will now pay R3 to make a payment to a Capitec Bank account or another bank account if you use your card. This costs R1.50 if you transact using the internet;
A cash withdrawal from a Capitec ATM has gone up from R3.75 to R4, while withdrawals from any Saswitch ATM remained the same at R7;
To create, update or cancel a stop order in your branch will now cost you R4; it cost R3.75 previously;
A stop order has increased from R2.75 to R3 in branch and is R1.50 via internet;
A returned debit order has increased from R3.75 to R4 (a Naedo returned debit order is free - most clients’ debit orders are Naedo debit orders – in other words early debit orders - very few organisations still use the old normal debit order); and
The cost of a statement requested in your bank’s branch has gone up from R2.75 to R3.
Online transacting
Banks are encouraging customers to transact online to save money, which is why you pay more to transact at branches. Capitec offers free internet and mobile banking (AbsaTransact offers free mobile banking), and each transaction you make costs R1.50 (half the cost in a branch).
But note the restrictions:
You can make payments to a Capitec Bank account or another bank account via the internet, and create, update or cancel a debit order – but that’s the extent of the transactions you can make.
With your cellphone, you can make a payment to a Capitec Bank account, as well as top up airtime and electricity.
Capitec’s prepaid airtime purchase is free if you top up with your cellphone (Capitec doesn’t yet offer airtime purchases via internet banking, but may do so in the future).
With FNB’s EasyPlan, you pay R1 for a prepaid top-up via the internet, and R2.95 for a payment. Transfers and balance enquiries are free.
In terms of cellphone banking, you can perform the same transactions, as well as send money to FNB’s e-Wallet. But note that you pay R8.50 a month to subscribe to cellphone and internet banking.
The ATM debate
At Capitec Bank the R7 fee for withdrawing at another bank’s ATM remains the same, irrespective of the amount you withdraw.
Withdrawals at Capitec ATMs are pricier – but withdrawal from another bank's ATM is still the cheapest of all the banks.
The closest comparable fee here is FNB’s EasyPlan option – you pay R7.70 to use another bank’s ATM.
That said, Charl Nel, head of strategic communication at Capitec, says that ATMs are not a cost-efficient way of giving consumers access to their money, so there are no plans to roll out more Capitec ATMs – in fact, ATMs should be a last resort.
Cheaper options include swiping for goods with your card at no cost. Getting cash back at one of the 36 000 till points at participating retailers costs R1, says Nel.
Capitec doesn’t see itself in competition with AbsaTransact, for example, as you need to have a minimum of R2 000 flowing into your AbsaTransact account each month or you pay a R25 fee; and there is also no internet banking available on this plan.
Penalty fees
Absa is also the first bank to completely waive penalty fees for bounced debit orders and insufficient funds at ATM withdrawals or point of sale.
Capitec's Global One account charges R3.75 (this is R4.00 and if it is a Naedo debit order – early debit order – then it is free) penalty fees for these types of transactions and FNB EasyPlan has a R5 penalty charge.
- City Press
http://www.fin24.com
Thursday 08 March 2012
What the Bloody Banks can learn from Capitec
7 March 2012 By Alan Straton
I am so sick and tired of opening a newspaper and seeing the big three banks hogging full page spread adverts using bait and switch tactics in order to gain market share.
The clincher was opening the Sunday Crimes this past weekend and seeing a THREE PAGE advert encouraging me to get an iPad or whatever – of course terms and conditions apply so you actually end up paying more.
Moving bank accounts is such a pain so most of us just stick with the devil we know. Poor Steve – I don’t think that story is actually based in reality however funny it is.
Let’s face it – what do we need out of a bank? Somewhere to put our money where the more adult amongst us will expect to be rewarded by gaining interest on a positive balance and punished by having to pay interest on a negative balance. It is not rocket science.
With the advent of internet and mobile banking we are actually helping to keep bank costs down enormously and I secretly think that we should be rewarded each time we do a transaction online as each online transaction contributes to lessening the banks cost of staff and transporting money. Of course less feet in the bank also leads to less chance to sell hapless clients ever more sophisticated sounding financial instruments which are basically a thinly veiled attempt to extract ever more money out of our pockets in the guise of fees, interest and charges for stuff we don’t need.
The BIG THREE banks should learn this valuable practical lesson from me:
Last year I opened a Capitec bank savings account after doing an exercise to see just how much my so-called savings account from my bank of 28 years was costing me – shocked does not even begin to describe my disgust. Opening the account was quick and easy after I ascertained that they would accept a certain ‘foreign’ cheque each month as a deposit.
Depositing money is a cinch – I present my card, enter my pin number and they swipe the cheque. No filling in of forms, no stamping of every stray piece of paper in sight, no extra stamp and signature on the back of the cheque – simple and easy in contrast to my bank of 28 years standing (Okay, I have learned to go to a specific Capitec teller as her cheque swipe machine thingy works every time!).
Internet banking is easy – the site loads fast and is simple, you are issued with a random code generator that is matched to your account and you are requested to generate and input a code whenever creating new beneficiaries and making payments. Internet banking is included in your monthly fee of R4.50 (YES YOU READ RIGHT – R4.50 a month). Internet payments are R2.50 each.
You can draw money from the tills at most supermarket chains – at a charge of a R1.00. All branches are open longer than traditional banks and branches located in certain shopping malls are also open on a Sunday.
BUT, the clincher for me is NO transaction charges when you swipe your card when making purchases – fuel included. In addition Capitec offers a good interest rate of 6.6% on balances below R10 000.00 – you are encouraged to open another savings account for any money over R10 000.00.
The downsides are – no bonds, no business accounts, no credit cards, no online unit trust and share investments, drawing from a ‘foreign’ ATM costs R7.50 and never ever lend money – the offered rates look expensive.
I can honestly say that for the six months that I have been running the Capitec Savings Account that I have come out ahead at the end of each month – not by a lot but, in comparison to what I was losing each month with my bank of 28 years, enough to buy a decent meal for the Longhair and I at the Chartroom Restaurant.
Of course the kicker for Steve and the BIG THREE banks is the following fact:
At every single tillpoint I get asked if Capitec bank is any good and I launch into a shorter version of my positive experiences with Capitec and the MOST IMPORTANT thing of all that I actually get something out at the end of the month.
Do you even bother to tell random people just how impressed you are with YOUR bank?
And who turned me on to Capitec? My son, Philip, who spent ages studying the fees of the different banks before choosing which bank to support – he will make a good accountant one day.
http://mype.co.za
I am so sick and tired of opening a newspaper and seeing the big three banks hogging full page spread adverts using bait and switch tactics in order to gain market share.
The clincher was opening the Sunday Crimes this past weekend and seeing a THREE PAGE advert encouraging me to get an iPad or whatever – of course terms and conditions apply so you actually end up paying more.
Moving bank accounts is such a pain so most of us just stick with the devil we know. Poor Steve – I don’t think that story is actually based in reality however funny it is.
Let’s face it – what do we need out of a bank? Somewhere to put our money where the more adult amongst us will expect to be rewarded by gaining interest on a positive balance and punished by having to pay interest on a negative balance. It is not rocket science.
With the advent of internet and mobile banking we are actually helping to keep bank costs down enormously and I secretly think that we should be rewarded each time we do a transaction online as each online transaction contributes to lessening the banks cost of staff and transporting money. Of course less feet in the bank also leads to less chance to sell hapless clients ever more sophisticated sounding financial instruments which are basically a thinly veiled attempt to extract ever more money out of our pockets in the guise of fees, interest and charges for stuff we don’t need.
The BIG THREE banks should learn this valuable practical lesson from me:
Last year I opened a Capitec bank savings account after doing an exercise to see just how much my so-called savings account from my bank of 28 years was costing me – shocked does not even begin to describe my disgust. Opening the account was quick and easy after I ascertained that they would accept a certain ‘foreign’ cheque each month as a deposit.
Depositing money is a cinch – I present my card, enter my pin number and they swipe the cheque. No filling in of forms, no stamping of every stray piece of paper in sight, no extra stamp and signature on the back of the cheque – simple and easy in contrast to my bank of 28 years standing (Okay, I have learned to go to a specific Capitec teller as her cheque swipe machine thingy works every time!).
Internet banking is easy – the site loads fast and is simple, you are issued with a random code generator that is matched to your account and you are requested to generate and input a code whenever creating new beneficiaries and making payments. Internet banking is included in your monthly fee of R4.50 (YES YOU READ RIGHT – R4.50 a month). Internet payments are R2.50 each.
You can draw money from the tills at most supermarket chains – at a charge of a R1.00. All branches are open longer than traditional banks and branches located in certain shopping malls are also open on a Sunday.
BUT, the clincher for me is NO transaction charges when you swipe your card when making purchases – fuel included. In addition Capitec offers a good interest rate of 6.6% on balances below R10 000.00 – you are encouraged to open another savings account for any money over R10 000.00.
The downsides are – no bonds, no business accounts, no credit cards, no online unit trust and share investments, drawing from a ‘foreign’ ATM costs R7.50 and never ever lend money – the offered rates look expensive.
I can honestly say that for the six months that I have been running the Capitec Savings Account that I have come out ahead at the end of each month – not by a lot but, in comparison to what I was losing each month with my bank of 28 years, enough to buy a decent meal for the Longhair and I at the Chartroom Restaurant.
Of course the kicker for Steve and the BIG THREE banks is the following fact:
At every single tillpoint I get asked if Capitec bank is any good and I launch into a shorter version of my positive experiences with Capitec and the MOST IMPORTANT thing of all that I actually get something out at the end of the month.
Do you even bother to tell random people just how impressed you are with YOUR bank?
And who turned me on to Capitec? My son, Philip, who spent ages studying the fees of the different banks before choosing which bank to support – he will make a good accountant one day.
http://mype.co.za
Tuesday 06 March 2012
Standard Bank launches new low-income product
SA has eight million people who are "bankable" but are not "banked properly", Peter Schlebusch, Standard Bank SA CEO of personal and business banking says.
The bank launched a new low-income product on Monday, the AccessAccount, aimed at attracting some of the country's unbanked. SA currently has 20 million bank users.
AccessAccount is said to have no monthly management fee, or require a minimum balance, and has a "highly competitive fee structure".
Schlebusch said it took eight minutes to open an account.
There were already some 824 mobile sales consultants selling accounts on a daily basis, he said.
Access points where customers could transact were mainly located in existing spaza shops within communities.
"We have at least two access points in every single municipality," Leon Barnard, Standard Bank director of inclusive banking said.
The bank will be migrating existing ePlan, Value Account and Mzansi customers onto the AccessAccount technology platform in the next few months.
"We are not making money out of it now but we believe that we will see exponential growth," said Schlebusch.
http://www.businesslive.co.za
The bank launched a new low-income product on Monday, the AccessAccount, aimed at attracting some of the country's unbanked. SA currently has 20 million bank users.
AccessAccount is said to have no monthly management fee, or require a minimum balance, and has a "highly competitive fee structure".
Schlebusch said it took eight minutes to open an account.
There were already some 824 mobile sales consultants selling accounts on a daily basis, he said.
Access points where customers could transact were mainly located in existing spaza shops within communities.
"We have at least two access points in every single municipality," Leon Barnard, Standard Bank director of inclusive banking said.
The bank will be migrating existing ePlan, Value Account and Mzansi customers onto the AccessAccount technology platform in the next few months.
"We are not making money out of it now but we believe that we will see exponential growth," said Schlebusch.
http://www.businesslive.co.za
Get your own back if your buy is grounded
March 5 2012 at 08:16am
By Wendy Knowler
Predictably, given the widespread coverage of budget airline Velvet Sky’s woes, and speculation about impending liquidation, many of that airline’s ticket holders have written to me to ask whether they’d have any recourse if that happened.
Bruna Gilham wrote: “My husband booked air tickets online with Velvet Sky for us to fly to OR Tambo on March 16.
“Due to the current problems… he decided to see if he could cancel the tickets and get a refund. The response from Velvet Sky was that he couldn’t cancel or get a refund, because although they have currently suspended their services, they will be flying again from March 5.
“My concern is: what if their contingency plans come to nought and we are stranded?
“What consumer protection is available in these situations?”
The answer: there is charge-back – it’s a protection offered by credit card companies globally. If you pay for goods or services with your credit card and you don’t get them, you may apply for charge-back by filling in a dispute form at the bank that issued your card.
It’s essentially a reversal of the initial purchase transaction.
Many Nationwide Airlines passengers got their money back in this way when that airline folded a few years ago.
I wrote to all four major banks last week, asking them to explain their charge-back procedures. Here are their responses.
Absa
A cardholder has 120 days from the date of travel as reflected on the ticket to dispute and request charge-back via Absa for services not rendered.
Cardholders need to first attempt recovery from the supplier, failing which they are entitled to initiate a charge-back dispute.
From there, a formal process is followed between the issuing bank and the merchant’s acquiring bank (bank that processes card transactions on behalf of the supplier) to determine the validity of such dispute. Should the dispute be found to be justified, the supplier of the service is debited and the cardholder’s account is credited.
Charge-back rights apply where the service has not been delivered as contracted, whether the merchant has been liquidated or not.
To claim charge-back via Absa, clients can call 086 146 2273, visit a branch, or e-mail disputes@absa.co.za.
Nedbank
In the event that Velvet Sky ceases operations and not merely suspends its operations, as is now the case, cardholders who have purchased flight tickets from Velvet Sky using a payment card branded with a Visa, MasterCard or an American Express logo may contact their issuing bank for a charge-back, says Nedbank.
Charge-backs cannot be initiated where the merchant has expressed an intention to honour the flight or to accommodate the cardholder in a mutually acceptable manner.
Nedbank clients have just 30 days to raise a charge-back.
“This allows enough time for Nedbank to validate the charge-back before we finally submit it to the acquirer,” says Pamela White, the bank’s head of corporate card services.
In the case of an airline, that would be 30 days from the date of the scheduled flight, or “from when the cardholder was first made aware that the service would not be provided”. In other words, from the date that a liquidation is announced.
To claim charge-back from Nedbank, phone the bank’s call centre at 086 055 5111.
A dispute form will be provided, and you’ll be asked to provide the standard documentation.
First National Bank
FNB clients have 180 days from the transaction date, or the expected delivery date, to apply for a charge-back.
If an airline goes into liquidation, the charge-backs start once the liquidation has been confirmed with the airline’s bank.
Velvet Sky ticket holders must contact Velvet Sky directly until further notice, as the airline has not yet been declared liquidated – it is now just grounded.
Should it be liquidated, the acquiring bank (Nedbank) will then inform the different banking institutions to proceed with the standard charge-back process where applicable.
Affected FNB customers should phone 087 575 1111 to get the necessary form which needs to be completed and then e-mailed or faxed back to them.
Standard Bank
Standard Bank gives its customers 120 days in which to apply for charge-back from the time the service has not been rendered.
Clients must wait until the day after they should have flown. They must then complete a state-ment of dispute for services not rendered, and e-mail Chargebacks.disputes@ Standardbank.co.za
Disputes between Velvet Sky and its passengers should be e-mailed to enquiries@ flyvelvetsky.com or faxed to 086 214 5018.
www.iol.co.za
By Wendy Knowler
Predictably, given the widespread coverage of budget airline Velvet Sky’s woes, and speculation about impending liquidation, many of that airline’s ticket holders have written to me to ask whether they’d have any recourse if that happened.
Bruna Gilham wrote: “My husband booked air tickets online with Velvet Sky for us to fly to OR Tambo on March 16.
“Due to the current problems… he decided to see if he could cancel the tickets and get a refund. The response from Velvet Sky was that he couldn’t cancel or get a refund, because although they have currently suspended their services, they will be flying again from March 5.
“My concern is: what if their contingency plans come to nought and we are stranded?
“What consumer protection is available in these situations?”
The answer: there is charge-back – it’s a protection offered by credit card companies globally. If you pay for goods or services with your credit card and you don’t get them, you may apply for charge-back by filling in a dispute form at the bank that issued your card.
It’s essentially a reversal of the initial purchase transaction.
Many Nationwide Airlines passengers got their money back in this way when that airline folded a few years ago.
I wrote to all four major banks last week, asking them to explain their charge-back procedures. Here are their responses.
Absa
A cardholder has 120 days from the date of travel as reflected on the ticket to dispute and request charge-back via Absa for services not rendered.
Cardholders need to first attempt recovery from the supplier, failing which they are entitled to initiate a charge-back dispute.
From there, a formal process is followed between the issuing bank and the merchant’s acquiring bank (bank that processes card transactions on behalf of the supplier) to determine the validity of such dispute. Should the dispute be found to be justified, the supplier of the service is debited and the cardholder’s account is credited.
Charge-back rights apply where the service has not been delivered as contracted, whether the merchant has been liquidated or not.
To claim charge-back via Absa, clients can call 086 146 2273, visit a branch, or e-mail disputes@absa.co.za.
Nedbank
In the event that Velvet Sky ceases operations and not merely suspends its operations, as is now the case, cardholders who have purchased flight tickets from Velvet Sky using a payment card branded with a Visa, MasterCard or an American Express logo may contact their issuing bank for a charge-back, says Nedbank.
Charge-backs cannot be initiated where the merchant has expressed an intention to honour the flight or to accommodate the cardholder in a mutually acceptable manner.
Nedbank clients have just 30 days to raise a charge-back.
“This allows enough time for Nedbank to validate the charge-back before we finally submit it to the acquirer,” says Pamela White, the bank’s head of corporate card services.
In the case of an airline, that would be 30 days from the date of the scheduled flight, or “from when the cardholder was first made aware that the service would not be provided”. In other words, from the date that a liquidation is announced.
To claim charge-back from Nedbank, phone the bank’s call centre at 086 055 5111.
A dispute form will be provided, and you’ll be asked to provide the standard documentation.
First National Bank
FNB clients have 180 days from the transaction date, or the expected delivery date, to apply for a charge-back.
If an airline goes into liquidation, the charge-backs start once the liquidation has been confirmed with the airline’s bank.
Velvet Sky ticket holders must contact Velvet Sky directly until further notice, as the airline has not yet been declared liquidated – it is now just grounded.
Should it be liquidated, the acquiring bank (Nedbank) will then inform the different banking institutions to proceed with the standard charge-back process where applicable.
Affected FNB customers should phone 087 575 1111 to get the necessary form which needs to be completed and then e-mailed or faxed back to them.
Standard Bank
Standard Bank gives its customers 120 days in which to apply for charge-back from the time the service has not been rendered.
Clients must wait until the day after they should have flown. They must then complete a state-ment of dispute for services not rendered, and e-mail Chargebacks.disputes@ Standardbank.co.za
Disputes between Velvet Sky and its passengers should be e-mailed to enquiries@ flyvelvetsky.com or faxed to 086 214 5018.
www.iol.co.za
Monday 05 March 2012
Your bank’s losing you but doesn’t seem to care
March 4 2012 at 12:05pm
By Angelique Arde
Research into the sentiments of bank consumers released this week shows that “banks are not winning the battle for the hearts of consumers”.
Thami Bolani, chairman of the National Consumer Forum (NCF), says: “There is a lot of anger among consumers about the way they are treated by banks and the fees they are charged for what is now widely considered a grudge purchase.
“As the NCF, we are amazed, not to mention disappointed, that the banks seem to take so little notice of this growing perception among consumers.”
The research – a study of consumer perceptions released this week – was commissioned by Capitec Bank. It was based on responses from 725 South Africans countrywide who were invited to “re-imagine banking”.
The study found that only 39 percent of consumers are happy with their bank and 56 percent say that if the Finance Minister could change one thing in 2012, they would ask for bank charges to be slashed.
Comments from respondents included: “Don’t take me for granted”, “My time is worth money too”, “I need help understanding my account and how to manage my money”, “I want to deal with a person at a call centre, not a machine”, and “Treat customers like you need their business”.
The study also found that 46 percent of respondents are frustrated with fees and tricky literature but won’t change banks. Forty-three percent say it is impossible to understand fees; 37 percent have tried to compare costs but gave up; and 15 percent are looking for a new bank but feel it’s too time consuming to change.
When asked why they bank, 52.5 percent of respondents say “because it keeps my money safe”. Only eight percent say they bank to keep control of their spending. Yet while the perceived role of a bank is to protect a client’s cash, 24 percent say banking is tailored to their bank’s needs, not theirs. A further 47 percent say their bank is milking them.
“Banking is the necessary evil of earning money. It’s a system that has been designed that way,” says one respondent. He says if he was his bank’s manager for a day, he would go out of his way to help clients understand what makes banking so difficult, and why it is necessary.
Charl Nel, head of strategic communications at Capitec, says that banks are businesses and need to make a profit, “but clients shouldn’t have to absorb the overheads through high fees. Instead, processes and administration should be automated to reduce manpower as far as possible, in turn reducing cost to company.”
The study also found that technological innovation has had an unexpected spin-off: banking has become faceless and impersonal.
Bolani says Capitec’s findings suggest that those people without computers and internet access are bearing the brunt of banking costs. “They are having to stand in queues for their banking services, and are charged over the odds for a simple thing like cashing a cheque or depositing cash.”
He says: “The authority, expertise and experience of staff at branch level seems to be dropping all the time, eroding the intimate relationship on which great brands are supposed to be built.”
The study also gave consumers an opportunity to speak up and to be heard.
“A smart brand listens, reinterprets what it hears and presents its customers with a solution that meets their needs.
“Our view is that the underlying yearning (of consumers) is for better control of their financial lives. If we reinterpret this correctly, we will provide consumers with a better solution to everyday banking.”
This week financial product comparison website Thinkmoney (www.thinkmoney.co.za) also released research revealing that consumers rate smaller banks – Capitec and African Bank – higher than the Big Four: Absa, First National Bank, Nedbank and Standard Bank.
Gareth Mountain, chief executive officer of Thinkmoney, says the findings are based on product reviews by Thinkmoney subscribers over the past three years.
The reviews, based on a variety of criteria – such as integrity, value for money and flexibility – show growing consumer confidence in the smaller banks.
“Out of 5 763 subscribers who have left a review of their bank, 564 reviews were for Capitec and 87 percent of those were willing to recommend the product to others.”
Thinkmoney subscribers gave Capitec’s Global One account a four-star rating out of five. “Subscribers love that it has low bank charges, excellent service and internet banking that is quick and simple to use.”
Mountain says that out of the 2 042 subscribers who have left reviews regarding personal loans, 808 reviews were for African Bank’s products. (African Bank is a specialist credit bank, offering unsecured loans and credit cards only.)
Sixty-two percent of those subscribers gave the bank’s personal loan a four-star rating out of five. “Subscribers highlighted the low interest rate, flexible instalments and quick pay-out process,” he says.
Mountain says Thinkmoney’s research doesn’t necessarily show that subscribers are switching banks; it shows they are using and recommending the products offered by smaller banks.
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP
Before you hotfoot it to a smaller bank or a rival bank, make sure you’ve done your homework and have a clear understanding of what you need from a bank. This would be determined by the way that you bank.
For example, your use of electronic channels or your reliance on cash may be a factor. You need to know that the smaller bank’s products and services will be able to meet your needs.
When considering another bank’s offering, don’t look at its savings rates only and neglect to find out about its lending rates.
http://www.iol.co.za
By Angelique Arde
Research into the sentiments of bank consumers released this week shows that “banks are not winning the battle for the hearts of consumers”.
Thami Bolani, chairman of the National Consumer Forum (NCF), says: “There is a lot of anger among consumers about the way they are treated by banks and the fees they are charged for what is now widely considered a grudge purchase.
“As the NCF, we are amazed, not to mention disappointed, that the banks seem to take so little notice of this growing perception among consumers.”
The research – a study of consumer perceptions released this week – was commissioned by Capitec Bank. It was based on responses from 725 South Africans countrywide who were invited to “re-imagine banking”.
The study found that only 39 percent of consumers are happy with their bank and 56 percent say that if the Finance Minister could change one thing in 2012, they would ask for bank charges to be slashed.
Comments from respondents included: “Don’t take me for granted”, “My time is worth money too”, “I need help understanding my account and how to manage my money”, “I want to deal with a person at a call centre, not a machine”, and “Treat customers like you need their business”.
The study also found that 46 percent of respondents are frustrated with fees and tricky literature but won’t change banks. Forty-three percent say it is impossible to understand fees; 37 percent have tried to compare costs but gave up; and 15 percent are looking for a new bank but feel it’s too time consuming to change.
When asked why they bank, 52.5 percent of respondents say “because it keeps my money safe”. Only eight percent say they bank to keep control of their spending. Yet while the perceived role of a bank is to protect a client’s cash, 24 percent say banking is tailored to their bank’s needs, not theirs. A further 47 percent say their bank is milking them.
“Banking is the necessary evil of earning money. It’s a system that has been designed that way,” says one respondent. He says if he was his bank’s manager for a day, he would go out of his way to help clients understand what makes banking so difficult, and why it is necessary.
Charl Nel, head of strategic communications at Capitec, says that banks are businesses and need to make a profit, “but clients shouldn’t have to absorb the overheads through high fees. Instead, processes and administration should be automated to reduce manpower as far as possible, in turn reducing cost to company.”
The study also found that technological innovation has had an unexpected spin-off: banking has become faceless and impersonal.
Bolani says Capitec’s findings suggest that those people without computers and internet access are bearing the brunt of banking costs. “They are having to stand in queues for their banking services, and are charged over the odds for a simple thing like cashing a cheque or depositing cash.”
He says: “The authority, expertise and experience of staff at branch level seems to be dropping all the time, eroding the intimate relationship on which great brands are supposed to be built.”
The study also gave consumers an opportunity to speak up and to be heard.
“A smart brand listens, reinterprets what it hears and presents its customers with a solution that meets their needs.
“Our view is that the underlying yearning (of consumers) is for better control of their financial lives. If we reinterpret this correctly, we will provide consumers with a better solution to everyday banking.”
This week financial product comparison website Thinkmoney (www.thinkmoney.co.za) also released research revealing that consumers rate smaller banks – Capitec and African Bank – higher than the Big Four: Absa, First National Bank, Nedbank and Standard Bank.
Gareth Mountain, chief executive officer of Thinkmoney, says the findings are based on product reviews by Thinkmoney subscribers over the past three years.
The reviews, based on a variety of criteria – such as integrity, value for money and flexibility – show growing consumer confidence in the smaller banks.
“Out of 5 763 subscribers who have left a review of their bank, 564 reviews were for Capitec and 87 percent of those were willing to recommend the product to others.”
Thinkmoney subscribers gave Capitec’s Global One account a four-star rating out of five. “Subscribers love that it has low bank charges, excellent service and internet banking that is quick and simple to use.”
Mountain says that out of the 2 042 subscribers who have left reviews regarding personal loans, 808 reviews were for African Bank’s products. (African Bank is a specialist credit bank, offering unsecured loans and credit cards only.)
Sixty-two percent of those subscribers gave the bank’s personal loan a four-star rating out of five. “Subscribers highlighted the low interest rate, flexible instalments and quick pay-out process,” he says.
Mountain says Thinkmoney’s research doesn’t necessarily show that subscribers are switching banks; it shows they are using and recommending the products offered by smaller banks.
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP
Before you hotfoot it to a smaller bank or a rival bank, make sure you’ve done your homework and have a clear understanding of what you need from a bank. This would be determined by the way that you bank.
For example, your use of electronic channels or your reliance on cash may be a factor. You need to know that the smaller bank’s products and services will be able to meet your needs.
When considering another bank’s offering, don’t look at its savings rates only and neglect to find out about its lending rates.
http://www.iol.co.za
FNB opens first branch for Chinese community
Secular banking services seems to be becoming more commonplace in South Africa.
Islamic banking services have been offered for some time now by the country's major banks, but now FNB has taken it one step further by opening its first branch for a Chinese community.
The bank has established a branch in China Mall, located at the Afrifocus Centre in the Johannesburg suburb of Crown Mines.
In line with FNB's growing footprint, the Crown Mine branch is viewed as a suitable starting point for growth and will provide efficient banking services to the surrounding communities and businesses, the bank says.
"Since opening in January, we have worked closely with the branch staff to ensure that a high level of service will be provided. We also have fluent Mandarin and Cantonese speaking staff to serve our Chinese speaking customers.
"This branch is a stepping stone for FNB, allowing us to build enduring and rewarding relationships with the local Community," says Barry de Witt, CEO Banking Channels at FNB.
The branch offers high-tech banking solutions for clients and customers alike. The branch boasts two ADTs, which will enable personal and business clients to experience state of the art electronic banking 24 hours and seven days a week.
http://www.businesslive.co.za
Islamic banking services have been offered for some time now by the country's major banks, but now FNB has taken it one step further by opening its first branch for a Chinese community.
The bank has established a branch in China Mall, located at the Afrifocus Centre in the Johannesburg suburb of Crown Mines.
In line with FNB's growing footprint, the Crown Mine branch is viewed as a suitable starting point for growth and will provide efficient banking services to the surrounding communities and businesses, the bank says.
"Since opening in January, we have worked closely with the branch staff to ensure that a high level of service will be provided. We also have fluent Mandarin and Cantonese speaking staff to serve our Chinese speaking customers.
"This branch is a stepping stone for FNB, allowing us to build enduring and rewarding relationships with the local Community," says Barry de Witt, CEO Banking Channels at FNB.
The branch offers high-tech banking solutions for clients and customers alike. The branch boasts two ADTs, which will enable personal and business clients to experience state of the art electronic banking 24 hours and seven days a week.
http://www.businesslive.co.za
Thursday 01 March 2012
FNB sells an iPad every minute
Derrick Cramer February 29, 2012
Firstrand bank CEO Sizwe Nxasana sheds some light on iPad sales through FNB
First Rand limited is the largest vendor of Apple iPhones and iPads in the country according to company CEO Sizwe Nxasana.
Nxasana made the revelation in an interview with Moneyweb’s Alec Hogg, where the two discussed First Rand’s success in the current market.
Nxasana noted that FNB was seeing great sales success with the iPad tablet device. “We’re selling one iPad a minute,” he said.
This impressive sales figure has seen FNB make a name for itself in the smartphone sales space. “We’ve become the biggest vendor of iPads and iPhones and smartphones generally,” Nxsana went on.
In addition to the sales figures, Nxasana said that the smartphone and tablet sales continue to drive volumes of new customers signing up to FNB to take advantage of the deal.
Another interesting bit of information revealed by Nxasana is that FirstRand deals directly with Apple, rather than going through local Apple distributor Core to source stock of iPad tablets. “We’re importing directly from Apple and we deliver them directly to customers,” concluded Nxasana.
The FNB smartphone and tablet specials are available to Gold and Platinum FNB account holders, as well as Private banking clients. Devices from a range of manufacturer’s including Apple, Samsung, HTC and BlackBerry are available for a set monthly amount over a 24-month period.
http://mybroadband.co.za
Firstrand bank CEO Sizwe Nxasana sheds some light on iPad sales through FNB
First Rand limited is the largest vendor of Apple iPhones and iPads in the country according to company CEO Sizwe Nxasana.
Nxasana made the revelation in an interview with Moneyweb’s Alec Hogg, where the two discussed First Rand’s success in the current market.
Nxasana noted that FNB was seeing great sales success with the iPad tablet device. “We’re selling one iPad a minute,” he said.
This impressive sales figure has seen FNB make a name for itself in the smartphone sales space. “We’ve become the biggest vendor of iPads and iPhones and smartphones generally,” Nxsana went on.
In addition to the sales figures, Nxasana said that the smartphone and tablet sales continue to drive volumes of new customers signing up to FNB to take advantage of the deal.
Another interesting bit of information revealed by Nxasana is that FirstRand deals directly with Apple, rather than going through local Apple distributor Core to source stock of iPad tablets. “We’re importing directly from Apple and we deliver them directly to customers,” concluded Nxasana.
The FNB smartphone and tablet specials are available to Gold and Platinum FNB account holders, as well as Private banking clients. Devices from a range of manufacturer’s including Apple, Samsung, HTC and BlackBerry are available for a set monthly amount over a 24-month period.
FNB smartphone and tablet deals:
| Device | Monthly price (for 24 months) | Gold Cheque Account | Platinum Cheque Account | Private Clients Account |
| Contract is for 24 months. Account fees are R92 p/m for Gold, R110 p/m for Platinum and Private. | ||||
| HTC Sensation | R200 | R292 | R310 | R310 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8520 | R70 | R162 | R180 | R180 |
| HTC Flyer | R229 | R321 | R339 | R339 |
| Apple iPad 2 16GB 3G Wi-Fi | R265 | R357 | R375 | R375 |
| Apple iPad 2 16GB Wi-Fi Only | R205 | R297 | R315 | R315 |
| Apple iPad 2 32GB 3G Wi-Fi | R309 | R401 | R419 | R419 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tablet | R219 | R311 | R329 | R329 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tablet | R279 | R371 | R389 | R389 |
| Samsung S2 Smartphone | R225 | R317 | R335 | R335 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note | R295 | R387 | R405 | R405 |
http://mybroadband.co.za
Tuesday 28 February 2012
What Standard Bank should have done instead of going after FNB on Twitter
By Tony Seifart
02.27.12
Much has been said about the recent online spat between Standard Bank and First National Bank (FNB). If it really can be called a spat, since FNB hardly reacted to the attack. Both the official FNB account @rbjacobs and the FNB CEO @michaeljordaan chose to “remain above it all”.
In truth, the actions of Standard Bank seemed to mobilise an army of avid FNB fans who condemned the actions of the bank. The allegations were rebuked with seeming religious fervour and harking back to the old days of IRC, I stood amazed at the virtual flaming of @StandardBankGrp.
If you missed it all, here’s a quick recap:
Late afternoon Thursday, Standard Bank announced via its Twitter feed that it had instructed its lawyers to approach the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to lay a complaint against FNB for false advertising. It then followed up with specifics regarding a print ad that appeared in the Sunday Times about FNB claiming to have a few “firsts”, such as free internet banking and free accounts for low-cost earners.
It said (and this seemed hard to swallow for many people on Twitter) that it was doing this because it had the public’s “best interests” at heart. Come now, who really believes that?
So what should Standard Bank have done?
Even though Standard Bank has more Twitter followers than @rbjacobs, a fact it bandied around as proof of its superior social media strategy, FNB is far more engaging with its clients. Simply read through both tweet-streams and you’ll see the difference in interaction. Standard Bank remains professional, it’s almost aloof, while FNB makes the point of building a relationship with the people it interacts with — the very essence of a social media strategy.
FNB has Standard Bank waxed on many levels
The ease-of-use of its online banking app is beyond world-class. I’ve played with the apps of a few UK and US banks and find the FNB app far superior. Standard Bank doesn’t even have an app.
FNB has an easy to understand pricing-structure for accounts — a fixed fee per month for almost everything you need — even my maths-based engineering brain can’t figure out Standard Bank’s fee structure.
FNB offers its Gold and Platinum clients discounted tablets and smartphones with 0% interest loans to encourage transactions without needing to go into a branch. Standard Bank has no such offer.
FNB give you access to your own branch or you work directly with a Relationship Manager. Standard Bank insists you work through a call centre — every time you call, you have to talk to a different person, and explain everything all over again.
With FNB you can do everything over the phone, email, or Twitter. With Standard Bank you have to go into the branch for something as simple as changing a PIN.
My point is that it’s really quick to draw up a list areas Standard Bank can improve in — especially when working with a group of techno-savvy upwardly mobile customers — who are based on Twitter. It’s exactly what it should have done.
The irony is that the true issue from Standard Bank’s point of view, the false advertising, was completely lost as more and more people pointed out the bank’s short-comings.
Standard Bank went about this completely the wrong way — if you’re going to take on your competitors in a field they are completely dominating — then make sure that the product or service you provide exceeds theirs. And if it doesn’t, rather keep quiet and work on it.
Making a statement the way it did made Standard Bank look petty. Whether its claims are true or not is for the ASA to decide, but what is rather obvious is that, no matter what the result, Standard Bank comes out looking like sore losers.
I have spoken to a few FNB clients since the incident. They all told me they felt compelled to personally defend the bank. Every FNB Client who is active on Twitter has had some interaction with @rbjacobs who feels more like a person than a corporate Twitter account. It seemed as if the big corporate bully was picking on a friend who had helped people out of difficult situations — and friends protect friends.
So what’s the lesson for us all here?
Interacting on social media is unpredictable. I don’t think anyone at Standard Bank expected the highly zealous reaction from FNB clients. It tried to look like our “Banking Saviour” and, to put it bluntly, ended up looking a bit like the village idiot.
It’s also worthwhile considering whether or not Twitter is the right medium for such an announcement. It’s not easy to get a succinct message across without losing the plot in 140 characters. If you’re going to make announcements on Twitter, surely it would be better to provide a full press-release on your website or blog post and use Twitter to link directly to that.
The tweet is simply too short a message form to handle any really complex argument. The message can easily get lost and confused in the tweet stream, something which was made abundantly clear last week.
If your competitor online is doing something better than you — rather look to yourself. How can you improve your product or service? How can you turn clients into brand evangelists? It’s a strategy that has worked incredibly well for FNB — and it’ll work well for your business too.
http://memeburn.com
02.27.12
Much has been said about the recent online spat between Standard Bank and First National Bank (FNB). If it really can be called a spat, since FNB hardly reacted to the attack. Both the official FNB account @rbjacobs and the FNB CEO @michaeljordaan chose to “remain above it all”.
In truth, the actions of Standard Bank seemed to mobilise an army of avid FNB fans who condemned the actions of the bank. The allegations were rebuked with seeming religious fervour and harking back to the old days of IRC, I stood amazed at the virtual flaming of @StandardBankGrp.
If you missed it all, here’s a quick recap:
Late afternoon Thursday, Standard Bank announced via its Twitter feed that it had instructed its lawyers to approach the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to lay a complaint against FNB for false advertising. It then followed up with specifics regarding a print ad that appeared in the Sunday Times about FNB claiming to have a few “firsts”, such as free internet banking and free accounts for low-cost earners.
It said (and this seemed hard to swallow for many people on Twitter) that it was doing this because it had the public’s “best interests” at heart. Come now, who really believes that?
So what should Standard Bank have done?
Even though Standard Bank has more Twitter followers than @rbjacobs, a fact it bandied around as proof of its superior social media strategy, FNB is far more engaging with its clients. Simply read through both tweet-streams and you’ll see the difference in interaction. Standard Bank remains professional, it’s almost aloof, while FNB makes the point of building a relationship with the people it interacts with — the very essence of a social media strategy.
FNB has Standard Bank waxed on many levels
The ease-of-use of its online banking app is beyond world-class. I’ve played with the apps of a few UK and US banks and find the FNB app far superior. Standard Bank doesn’t even have an app.
FNB has an easy to understand pricing-structure for accounts — a fixed fee per month for almost everything you need — even my maths-based engineering brain can’t figure out Standard Bank’s fee structure.
FNB offers its Gold and Platinum clients discounted tablets and smartphones with 0% interest loans to encourage transactions without needing to go into a branch. Standard Bank has no such offer.
FNB give you access to your own branch or you work directly with a Relationship Manager. Standard Bank insists you work through a call centre — every time you call, you have to talk to a different person, and explain everything all over again.
With FNB you can do everything over the phone, email, or Twitter. With Standard Bank you have to go into the branch for something as simple as changing a PIN.
My point is that it’s really quick to draw up a list areas Standard Bank can improve in — especially when working with a group of techno-savvy upwardly mobile customers — who are based on Twitter. It’s exactly what it should have done.
The irony is that the true issue from Standard Bank’s point of view, the false advertising, was completely lost as more and more people pointed out the bank’s short-comings.
Standard Bank went about this completely the wrong way — if you’re going to take on your competitors in a field they are completely dominating — then make sure that the product or service you provide exceeds theirs. And if it doesn’t, rather keep quiet and work on it.
Making a statement the way it did made Standard Bank look petty. Whether its claims are true or not is for the ASA to decide, but what is rather obvious is that, no matter what the result, Standard Bank comes out looking like sore losers.
I have spoken to a few FNB clients since the incident. They all told me they felt compelled to personally defend the bank. Every FNB Client who is active on Twitter has had some interaction with @rbjacobs who feels more like a person than a corporate Twitter account. It seemed as if the big corporate bully was picking on a friend who had helped people out of difficult situations — and friends protect friends.
So what’s the lesson for us all here?
Interacting on social media is unpredictable. I don’t think anyone at Standard Bank expected the highly zealous reaction from FNB clients. It tried to look like our “Banking Saviour” and, to put it bluntly, ended up looking a bit like the village idiot.
It’s also worthwhile considering whether or not Twitter is the right medium for such an announcement. It’s not easy to get a succinct message across without losing the plot in 140 characters. If you’re going to make announcements on Twitter, surely it would be better to provide a full press-release on your website or blog post and use Twitter to link directly to that.
The tweet is simply too short a message form to handle any really complex argument. The message can easily get lost and confused in the tweet stream, something which was made abundantly clear last week.
If your competitor online is doing something better than you — rather look to yourself. How can you improve your product or service? How can you turn clients into brand evangelists? It’s a strategy that has worked incredibly well for FNB — and it’ll work well for your business too.
http://memeburn.com
Monday 27 February 2012
FNB lets you send money to Facebook friends with cellphone banking
First National Bank (FNB) has launched a service that allows cellphone banking customers to send money to their Facebook friends.
According to the FNB vouchers page on the bank’s website, standard charges apply for the transaction and the procedure for sending a voucher is as follows:
Login to Cellphone Banking
Select Prepaid
Select Buy FNB Voucher
Enter your One-Time PIN (OTP)
Select the purchasing account (incl. credit cards), enter your voucher amount and select an FNB Voucher PIN
Confirm the transaction
You’ll receive an SMS confirming your purchase and FNB Voucher Number
Login to Facebook, locate the FNB Vouchers application and send the voucher to your friend.
FNB added that vouchers can only be sent to Facebook users with South African mobile phone numbers. If you don’t send a voucher within 7 days, you will be refunded for the voucher purchase, excluding the service fee.
The recipient of the voucher can use it to redeem Prepaid Airtime or Convert it to cash using FNB eWallet.
FNB’s Facebook-oriented service joins that of another South African run startup, ZunguZ.
ZunguZ lets users of its Facebook application send money to any other Facebook user, which can be withdrawn at any South African bank. For now, international users are limited to using their Visa or MasterCard credit card.
http://mybroadband.co.za
According to the FNB vouchers page on the bank’s website, standard charges apply for the transaction and the procedure for sending a voucher is as follows:
Login to Cellphone Banking
Select Prepaid
Select Buy FNB Voucher
Enter your One-Time PIN (OTP)
Select the purchasing account (incl. credit cards), enter your voucher amount and select an FNB Voucher PIN
Confirm the transaction
You’ll receive an SMS confirming your purchase and FNB Voucher Number
Login to Facebook, locate the FNB Vouchers application and send the voucher to your friend.
FNB added that vouchers can only be sent to Facebook users with South African mobile phone numbers. If you don’t send a voucher within 7 days, you will be refunded for the voucher purchase, excluding the service fee.
The recipient of the voucher can use it to redeem Prepaid Airtime or Convert it to cash using FNB eWallet.
FNB’s Facebook-oriented service joins that of another South African run startup, ZunguZ.
ZunguZ lets users of its Facebook application send money to any other Facebook user, which can be withdrawn at any South African bank. For now, international users are limited to using their Visa or MasterCard credit card.
http://mybroadband.co.za
Friday 24 February 2012
Bank fees: baffle me with waffle
Pravin Gordhan says banks charge too much. So I asked my bank why an e-mail confirming a payment costs 65 cents.
By Ivo Vegter, Contributor
24 Feb 2012
I like my bank, by comparison with the rest of the big-four cartel. I like my bank like a mugger who doesn't stab me. By all accounts, it is easily the least expensive among the big four, and it gets a lot right about customer service. Seriously, you should all move to my bank (although I've heard good things about a smaller bank with a limited set of services but great value).
I asked my bank – let's call it Bank A – why it charges 65 cents to send a confirmation e-mail to the recipient of a payment.
After all, sending an e-mail costs... hey, anyone know this stuff? I mean, I know what I pay for bread per loaf, and bandwidth per gig. But what do you actually pay per e-mail? An entirely automated, outgoing e-mail, possibly encrypted, which requires no human intervention and is a feature of your business software?
E-mail is a truly trivial application in the 21st century, so I dug up a 10-year-old white paper. It said for an in-house solution sending 10 000 e-mails a week, you'd pay about 10 South African cents per e-mail. By 100 000 e-mails a week, it'd cost one cent, and for higher volumes, even less. Let's assume, generously, that it didn't get any cheaper in the last 10 years.
The price of 65 cents (a profit margin of 6 400%) looks extraordinarily high by this standard. Bank B charges 48 cents. Bank C charges 65 cents too. Bank D couldn't find space in its 58-page fees brochure for this information.
So I asked why. The customer service agents, who happily hang out on Twitter so I can yank their chains in near real-time, said: “This is a service charge associated with the technical administration of secure data.”
Ah, right. The technical administration... what?!
This is 2012. Banks don't employ typing pools anymore. The “technical administration of secure data” today involves no work at all. After a once-off installation of secure mail server software, connected to an Internet pipe on one end and a banking server on the other, it costs nothing measured in units bigger than bytes or microseconds.
In short, it's waffle. There is no such thing as the “technical administration of secure data”.
When I asked how many people the bank employs at their very own Bletchley Park for this evidently quite expensive service, they dodged the question again: “Every e-mail you send needs to be secure, as it contains personal data. Hence we need to have systems that maintain your privacy.”
So, none then.
In a subsequent e-mail, a spokesperson for the bank said the price was intended “to address infrastructure and other costs”.
More lies, then. After all, neither my e-mailed statements nor the paper ones the mailman sticks in the gate next to your mailbox for any passing identity thief to find, attract this “technical administration” fee. Yet they are far more complex, both in the database query that produces it and the infrastructure costs that support it.
The average customer, with average access to the average call centre, is meant to get baffled by this very average waffle.
The CEO of the bank in question was more honest. “Convenience fee. Just copy and paste screen in mail to save 65c,” he told me. At least he's honest: banks do it because they can, and because while it costs them nothing, it's a pain in my neck not to ask them to do it.
However, a similar argument goes for other fees, which aren't so easily dodged.
Internal transfers, which can't cost the bank more than a fraction of a cent in computing time, get billed to the customer at R3.30 a pop. Inter-bank transfers – despite being a simple data message – cost far more. On top of that, the banks between them sit on the electronic data representing your money for 48 hours, stealing your interest.
The pricing guide that lists all these fees runs to 148 lines in a spreadsheet, and that's just for one type of account. There are dozens of these little bitty fees for essentially cost-free actions. Some of them can be avoided, and some can be bundled into flat-fee type accounts, but many can't. When multiplied by the number of transactions and number of customers a bank has, they add up to loads of lovely lolly.
Even bottom-of-the-range “Mzansi” accounts siphon off fees this way, which explains why low or irregular income earners aren't too keen on formal banking. It doesn't earn or save them any money, and the costs are just too high relative to their income.
Pravin Gordhan, in his budget speech on Wednesday, 22 February, said: “Fees for many products in the financial sector remain too high. High costs in savings products undermine the national objective of getting our people to save more.”
Indeed. Saving once earned customers money. Now, they pay to deposit money, pay to keep money in the bank, pay when they withdraw it, and pay hefty penalties for the most trivial “offences”. To add insult to injury, the interest they get is hardly enough to cover the price of an e-mail.
In the heavily regulated world of banking, the barriers to entry for new competition are very high. Cartel incumbents have no incentive to shoot themselves in the foot by aggressively going after each other on price. It is much less expensive to compete on brand marketing and customer service. There's no need to throw in cost-free services as extras just to make an account more attractive, because they're too small to quibble about individually.
So banks get away with the drip, drip, drip of surreptitious gouging, and when a customer does make a complaint, they baffle them with plausible-sounding nonsense. And, as my bank demonstrated, even the best of them do so.
Back when I was a young tech reporter, the exact same bank explained the great benefit of information technology: it allows banks to change their business model, from making money the old-fashioned way, on the difference between loan interest and deposit interest, to making money by charging for every single transaction you make.
“Brilliant,” I thought. “That way you can charge both savers and borrowers, and they'll never even notice how they're being swindled.”
No wonder nobody saves anymore.
http://www.itweb.co.za
By Ivo Vegter, Contributor
24 Feb 2012
I like my bank, by comparison with the rest of the big-four cartel. I like my bank like a mugger who doesn't stab me. By all accounts, it is easily the least expensive among the big four, and it gets a lot right about customer service. Seriously, you should all move to my bank (although I've heard good things about a smaller bank with a limited set of services but great value).
I asked my bank – let's call it Bank A – why it charges 65 cents to send a confirmation e-mail to the recipient of a payment.
After all, sending an e-mail costs... hey, anyone know this stuff? I mean, I know what I pay for bread per loaf, and bandwidth per gig. But what do you actually pay per e-mail? An entirely automated, outgoing e-mail, possibly encrypted, which requires no human intervention and is a feature of your business software?
E-mail is a truly trivial application in the 21st century, so I dug up a 10-year-old white paper. It said for an in-house solution sending 10 000 e-mails a week, you'd pay about 10 South African cents per e-mail. By 100 000 e-mails a week, it'd cost one cent, and for higher volumes, even less. Let's assume, generously, that it didn't get any cheaper in the last 10 years.
The price of 65 cents (a profit margin of 6 400%) looks extraordinarily high by this standard. Bank B charges 48 cents. Bank C charges 65 cents too. Bank D couldn't find space in its 58-page fees brochure for this information.
So I asked why. The customer service agents, who happily hang out on Twitter so I can yank their chains in near real-time, said: “This is a service charge associated with the technical administration of secure data.”
Ah, right. The technical administration... what?!
This is 2012. Banks don't employ typing pools anymore. The “technical administration of secure data” today involves no work at all. After a once-off installation of secure mail server software, connected to an Internet pipe on one end and a banking server on the other, it costs nothing measured in units bigger than bytes or microseconds.
In short, it's waffle. There is no such thing as the “technical administration of secure data”.
When I asked how many people the bank employs at their very own Bletchley Park for this evidently quite expensive service, they dodged the question again: “Every e-mail you send needs to be secure, as it contains personal data. Hence we need to have systems that maintain your privacy.”
So, none then.
In a subsequent e-mail, a spokesperson for the bank said the price was intended “to address infrastructure and other costs”.
More lies, then. After all, neither my e-mailed statements nor the paper ones the mailman sticks in the gate next to your mailbox for any passing identity thief to find, attract this “technical administration” fee. Yet they are far more complex, both in the database query that produces it and the infrastructure costs that support it.
The average customer, with average access to the average call centre, is meant to get baffled by this very average waffle.
The CEO of the bank in question was more honest. “Convenience fee. Just copy and paste screen in mail to save 65c,” he told me. At least he's honest: banks do it because they can, and because while it costs them nothing, it's a pain in my neck not to ask them to do it.
However, a similar argument goes for other fees, which aren't so easily dodged.
Internal transfers, which can't cost the bank more than a fraction of a cent in computing time, get billed to the customer at R3.30 a pop. Inter-bank transfers – despite being a simple data message – cost far more. On top of that, the banks between them sit on the electronic data representing your money for 48 hours, stealing your interest.
The pricing guide that lists all these fees runs to 148 lines in a spreadsheet, and that's just for one type of account. There are dozens of these little bitty fees for essentially cost-free actions. Some of them can be avoided, and some can be bundled into flat-fee type accounts, but many can't. When multiplied by the number of transactions and number of customers a bank has, they add up to loads of lovely lolly.
Even bottom-of-the-range “Mzansi” accounts siphon off fees this way, which explains why low or irregular income earners aren't too keen on formal banking. It doesn't earn or save them any money, and the costs are just too high relative to their income.
Pravin Gordhan, in his budget speech on Wednesday, 22 February, said: “Fees for many products in the financial sector remain too high. High costs in savings products undermine the national objective of getting our people to save more.”
Indeed. Saving once earned customers money. Now, they pay to deposit money, pay to keep money in the bank, pay when they withdraw it, and pay hefty penalties for the most trivial “offences”. To add insult to injury, the interest they get is hardly enough to cover the price of an e-mail.
In the heavily regulated world of banking, the barriers to entry for new competition are very high. Cartel incumbents have no incentive to shoot themselves in the foot by aggressively going after each other on price. It is much less expensive to compete on brand marketing and customer service. There's no need to throw in cost-free services as extras just to make an account more attractive, because they're too small to quibble about individually.
So banks get away with the drip, drip, drip of surreptitious gouging, and when a customer does make a complaint, they baffle them with plausible-sounding nonsense. And, as my bank demonstrated, even the best of them do so.
Back when I was a young tech reporter, the exact same bank explained the great benefit of information technology: it allows banks to change their business model, from making money the old-fashioned way, on the difference between loan interest and deposit interest, to making money by charging for every single transaction you make.
“Brilliant,” I thought. “That way you can charge both savers and borrowers, and they'll never even notice how they're being swindled.”
No wonder nobody saves anymore.
http://www.itweb.co.za
Time to smash SA’s bank charges racket?
Chinese government gets tough on bank charges. SA should do same.
Author: Jackie Cameron |23 February 2012 12:37
BEIJING - South Africans are right up there with Chinese consumers in paying exorbitant, hazy bank charges. The difference is that the Chinese government has heard the voices of discontent and is set to implement rules aimed at preventing banks from charging excessive fees.
China wants to make bank charges more transparent and less complicated. Chinese consumers are fed up of trying to figure out how their bank charges are levied – and the huge profits banks are making on their backs has been a growing source of irritation.
If only the South African authorities would consider doing the same. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan grumbled about high bank charges when he unveiled the National Budget this week, and threatened further steps, but what we need is some firm, fast, Chinese-style government action.
South Africa’s shockingly high bank charges have long been a bone of contention. It is clear banks can’t, or won’t, jack up their act on their own.
In spite of the occasional shock report or exposé that reminds customers how hard they have it in South Africa, banks continue raking in easy money through retail bank charges. This has been brought home to me living outside South Africa and watching bank charges being continually deducted while there is next-to-nothing going on in my accounts back home.
In one case, an ordinary Big Four personal cheque account – a requirement for taking out a mortgage with that bank some years ago – costs more than R150/month. And that’s before there’s any movement in my account, like a request for an annual interest statement that hasn’t arrived in the post or telephone payments.
Add up all those monthly instalments for a year and I’ve got enough to pay for an out-of-season budget flight on the high traffic Beijing-London route. This is more than most people earn in a month in South Africa.
Tally the basic charges on two accounts and I could soon have enough for a return air fare from Beijing to Johannesburg. That really seems like money-for-jam for the Big Banks involved, which there’s no point naming because they’re all the same.
Looking at it another way, my life assurance which is deducted from that same bank account costs roughly the same each month as my basic bank charges. The financial planner who sold me the insurance cover is counted among that group of intermediaries regularly chastised for doing a job once and getting paid a steady income stream indefinitely.
Yet, my bank is doing exactly the same, and arguably worse. I get nothing back from the bank, really, other than a place to facilitate five monthly electronic payments. There’s no interest being earned on my credit balance, so the bank gets my cash for free.
At least there’s a potential financial benefit at the end of the R150/month life cover - which, incidentally will include various fees, like commissions, that are deducted behind-the-scenes.
Banks usually like to tell us that their bank charges are going up less than the rate of inflation, so are in effect declining in real terms. We’re supposed to be grateful that we’re being squeezed a little less than the banks have in their power to do.
It is hard to shop around because the fee structures vary, and are being continually re-arranged. And, even if you do, you can’t really expect a significantly different picture out of your current bank’s nearest competitor.
It is a similar picture for Chinese consumers. But, this is a year in which a change of national political leadership and growing social unrest globally and nationally are giving the ruling Communist Party of China clique the heebie-jeebies. Growing consumer unhappiness about hefty bank charges is an obvious problem to nip in the bud.
The Chinese government has drafted regulations to compel banks to follow government-directed prices in some cases and in others to be more transparent in setting out market-related prices. It’s not dilly-dallying about the matter either: earlier this month it asked for public comments on the regulations by 20 March.
Last year three banks - Industrial Bank, CITIC Bank and Postal Saving Bank of China – were given large fines for levying excessive charges. One money-spinner entailed charging every time individuals re-set their secret passwords. That apparently netted not far off ¥6m (about R6m) for the banks involved (shhh: don’t tell our Big Four.)
Bank fees contribute about 20% in revenues for China’s banks. These banks already take a juicy income on the back of a guaranteed gap between lending and deposit rates.
China has some of the biggest, most profitable banks in the world. This includes ICBC – which owns a sizeable chunk of South African blue chip Standard Bank, which is listed on Johannesburg’s stock exchange (JSE: SBK).
ICBC was the world’s most profitable bank in 2011, according to China Daily newspaper. It is rated in the top 10 most valuable banking brands in the world, with Brand Finance also including other Chinese banks in the world’s top 20 (ICBC: 8; China Construction Bank: 10; Bank of China: 17).
South Africa’s banks don’t look too shabby, though. Moody’s, a ratings agency, gave the South African banking sector the thumbs up in a report in late 2011. And, Standard Bank and Absa (JSE: ASA) are rated among the top 100 most valuable banking brands internationally; Nedbank (JSE: NED ), Investec (JSE: INL) and FNB (part of JSE-listed FirstRand )are in the world’s top 200.
There is a well-worn saying in some circles that you are likely to enjoy a better return if you buy a life company’s shares than give it your money to invest on your behalf. The same credo could be applied to South Africa’s major banks as well as China’s big banking organisations: it probably makes more financial sense to buy their shares than be one of their customers.
http://www.moneyweb.co.za/
Author: Jackie Cameron |23 February 2012 12:37
BEIJING - South Africans are right up there with Chinese consumers in paying exorbitant, hazy bank charges. The difference is that the Chinese government has heard the voices of discontent and is set to implement rules aimed at preventing banks from charging excessive fees.
China wants to make bank charges more transparent and less complicated. Chinese consumers are fed up of trying to figure out how their bank charges are levied – and the huge profits banks are making on their backs has been a growing source of irritation.
If only the South African authorities would consider doing the same. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan grumbled about high bank charges when he unveiled the National Budget this week, and threatened further steps, but what we need is some firm, fast, Chinese-style government action.
South Africa’s shockingly high bank charges have long been a bone of contention. It is clear banks can’t, or won’t, jack up their act on their own.
In spite of the occasional shock report or exposé that reminds customers how hard they have it in South Africa, banks continue raking in easy money through retail bank charges. This has been brought home to me living outside South Africa and watching bank charges being continually deducted while there is next-to-nothing going on in my accounts back home.
In one case, an ordinary Big Four personal cheque account – a requirement for taking out a mortgage with that bank some years ago – costs more than R150/month. And that’s before there’s any movement in my account, like a request for an annual interest statement that hasn’t arrived in the post or telephone payments.
Add up all those monthly instalments for a year and I’ve got enough to pay for an out-of-season budget flight on the high traffic Beijing-London route. This is more than most people earn in a month in South Africa.
Tally the basic charges on two accounts and I could soon have enough for a return air fare from Beijing to Johannesburg. That really seems like money-for-jam for the Big Banks involved, which there’s no point naming because they’re all the same.
Looking at it another way, my life assurance which is deducted from that same bank account costs roughly the same each month as my basic bank charges. The financial planner who sold me the insurance cover is counted among that group of intermediaries regularly chastised for doing a job once and getting paid a steady income stream indefinitely.
Yet, my bank is doing exactly the same, and arguably worse. I get nothing back from the bank, really, other than a place to facilitate five monthly electronic payments. There’s no interest being earned on my credit balance, so the bank gets my cash for free.
At least there’s a potential financial benefit at the end of the R150/month life cover - which, incidentally will include various fees, like commissions, that are deducted behind-the-scenes.
Banks usually like to tell us that their bank charges are going up less than the rate of inflation, so are in effect declining in real terms. We’re supposed to be grateful that we’re being squeezed a little less than the banks have in their power to do.
It is hard to shop around because the fee structures vary, and are being continually re-arranged. And, even if you do, you can’t really expect a significantly different picture out of your current bank’s nearest competitor.
It is a similar picture for Chinese consumers. But, this is a year in which a change of national political leadership and growing social unrest globally and nationally are giving the ruling Communist Party of China clique the heebie-jeebies. Growing consumer unhappiness about hefty bank charges is an obvious problem to nip in the bud.
The Chinese government has drafted regulations to compel banks to follow government-directed prices in some cases and in others to be more transparent in setting out market-related prices. It’s not dilly-dallying about the matter either: earlier this month it asked for public comments on the regulations by 20 March.
Last year three banks - Industrial Bank, CITIC Bank and Postal Saving Bank of China – were given large fines for levying excessive charges. One money-spinner entailed charging every time individuals re-set their secret passwords. That apparently netted not far off ¥6m (about R6m) for the banks involved (shhh: don’t tell our Big Four.)
Bank fees contribute about 20% in revenues for China’s banks. These banks already take a juicy income on the back of a guaranteed gap between lending and deposit rates.
China has some of the biggest, most profitable banks in the world. This includes ICBC – which owns a sizeable chunk of South African blue chip Standard Bank, which is listed on Johannesburg’s stock exchange (JSE: SBK).
ICBC was the world’s most profitable bank in 2011, according to China Daily newspaper. It is rated in the top 10 most valuable banking brands in the world, with Brand Finance also including other Chinese banks in the world’s top 20 (ICBC: 8; China Construction Bank: 10; Bank of China: 17).
South Africa’s banks don’t look too shabby, though. Moody’s, a ratings agency, gave the South African banking sector the thumbs up in a report in late 2011. And, Standard Bank and Absa (JSE: ASA) are rated among the top 100 most valuable banking brands internationally; Nedbank (JSE: NED ), Investec (JSE: INL) and FNB (part of JSE-listed FirstRand )are in the world’s top 200.
There is a well-worn saying in some circles that you are likely to enjoy a better return if you buy a life company’s shares than give it your money to invest on your behalf. The same credo could be applied to South Africa’s major banks as well as China’s big banking organisations: it probably makes more financial sense to buy their shares than be one of their customers.
http://www.moneyweb.co.za/
Tuesday 21 February 2012
In South Africa, banking convenience meets controversy
By Dave Mayers | February 20, 2012, 9:58 AM PST
JOHANNESBURG–The launch of a new online system meant to track South African users’ spending habits has erupted in controversy here, calling into question the close-knit structure of South African banking and the power these banks wield over local startups.
Three weeks ago Christo Davel launched 22seven, an aggregated web-based financial management application meant to give users insight into their spending habits. While not a new idea — similar tools like Mint have been available for years in the U.S. — the continuously updated 22seven is the first of its kind in South Africa.
Allistar Fairweather at the Mail & Guardian describes how the app works
"It collects data on your financial habits, slices and dices it, and reveals the hidden costs of those impulse buys and late-night ATM visits. Then, by prodding you gently, it shows you how to save and spend more wisely."
On its face, what 22seven is offering is pretty straightforward — more information on a user’s spending patterns. However, to get that information the company first needs banking log in details. Michael Jordaan, CEO of First National Bank, one of the “big four” of South African banks, summed up the feelings of the country’s banking sector on twitter:
In the immediate aftermath of 22seven’s launch, all the members of the big four cautioned against giving out account details, some going as far as trying to block the service and saying they were no longer responsible for any fraud on users’ accounts if they disclosed banking details to 22seven, even if the fraud was unrelated to the Davel’s application. People were understandably wary of giving their banking information to the site.
For its part, 22seven has assured the safety of its users’ information. The site uses a U.S.-based company, Yodlee, to collect and store account information. It’s all done automatically, and at no point does anyone from Yodlee or 22seven have access to any account details. Yodlee boasts a long track record of keeping its users’ information safe.
Some within South Africa were disappointed in what they saw as an overreaction on the part of the country’s banks. Simon Dingle at the local technology site Tech Crunch said:
What does surprise me is how SA banks, instead of partnering with Yodlee like their leading international counterparts have done, are advising customers not to use the system. It’s just another example of how backward our banks are in their thinking about personal finances, even if they are improving on the service front.
Some argue that this whole dust up could have been avoided if 22seven had approached the local banks beforehand and arranged for a free application programming interface, or API, to be made available to third party sites. Even an official at local bank Absa, Christo Vrey, has singled a willingness to make an API available, although he remains ambiguous about a time frame for doing this. Absa is reportedly also working on its own financial management application that it wants to roll out to its customers soon.
Last week Jordaan’s FNB became the first bank to break from the big four, indicating its desire to work with 22seven in an email sent to its customers. The bank decided to allow users to create a limited profile in order for the company to gain to access their accounts.
22seven will be free while it’s in beta testing. The full version will cost users roughly $10 a month. While the site is being heralded by some as a “world-class” product, the current version runs on oft-maligned Flash, making its design outdated at launch. The company has said that it plans to develop apps for mobile devices like iPhones and iPads that aren’t Flash-friendly.
http://www.smartplanet.com
JOHANNESBURG–The launch of a new online system meant to track South African users’ spending habits has erupted in controversy here, calling into question the close-knit structure of South African banking and the power these banks wield over local startups.
Three weeks ago Christo Davel launched 22seven, an aggregated web-based financial management application meant to give users insight into their spending habits. While not a new idea — similar tools like Mint have been available for years in the U.S. — the continuously updated 22seven is the first of its kind in South Africa.
Allistar Fairweather at the Mail & Guardian describes how the app works
"It collects data on your financial habits, slices and dices it, and reveals the hidden costs of those impulse buys and late-night ATM visits. Then, by prodding you gently, it shows you how to save and spend more wisely."
On its face, what 22seven is offering is pretty straightforward — more information on a user’s spending patterns. However, to get that information the company first needs banking log in details. Michael Jordaan, CEO of First National Bank, one of the “big four” of South African banks, summed up the feelings of the country’s banking sector on twitter:
In the immediate aftermath of 22seven’s launch, all the members of the big four cautioned against giving out account details, some going as far as trying to block the service and saying they were no longer responsible for any fraud on users’ accounts if they disclosed banking details to 22seven, even if the fraud was unrelated to the Davel’s application. People were understandably wary of giving their banking information to the site.
For its part, 22seven has assured the safety of its users’ information. The site uses a U.S.-based company, Yodlee, to collect and store account information. It’s all done automatically, and at no point does anyone from Yodlee or 22seven have access to any account details. Yodlee boasts a long track record of keeping its users’ information safe.
Some within South Africa were disappointed in what they saw as an overreaction on the part of the country’s banks. Simon Dingle at the local technology site Tech Crunch said:
What does surprise me is how SA banks, instead of partnering with Yodlee like their leading international counterparts have done, are advising customers not to use the system. It’s just another example of how backward our banks are in their thinking about personal finances, even if they are improving on the service front.
Some argue that this whole dust up could have been avoided if 22seven had approached the local banks beforehand and arranged for a free application programming interface, or API, to be made available to third party sites. Even an official at local bank Absa, Christo Vrey, has singled a willingness to make an API available, although he remains ambiguous about a time frame for doing this. Absa is reportedly also working on its own financial management application that it wants to roll out to its customers soon.
Last week Jordaan’s FNB became the first bank to break from the big four, indicating its desire to work with 22seven in an email sent to its customers. The bank decided to allow users to create a limited profile in order for the company to gain to access their accounts.
22seven will be free while it’s in beta testing. The full version will cost users roughly $10 a month. While the site is being heralded by some as a “world-class” product, the current version runs on oft-maligned Flash, making its design outdated at launch. The company has said that it plans to develop apps for mobile devices like iPhones and iPads that aren’t Flash-friendly.
http://www.smartplanet.com
Friday 17 February 2012
Mzansi accounts reach dead end
The big banks in South Africa are scrambling to lure the country's 27-million customers in the mass market with more innovative and cheaper product offerings in a move that marks the near death of the Mzansi account.
FNB was the first bank to challenge Capitec in offering a no-frills, simple bank account when it launched EasyPlan almost two years ago. The other banks have followed and all are now aiming to provide low-cost banking for less than R30 a month.
In July last year Nedbank launched the Ke Yona account; this month Absa extended its Transact account across all its branches and Standard Bank will soon announce its Access account, a paperless, electronic origination bank account.
These banking products are in essence a maturing of the Mzansi bank account. For some banks, Mzansi was a kneejerk reaction to the financial sector charter and it never became fully integrated into their overall banking model. Instead, it was an expensive exercise written off as a social obligation, rather than a real acquisition strategy.
"Mzansi was loss-making," said Leon Barnard, director of Standard Bank inclusive banking. "It had high cost origination in-branch, servicing was expensive and customer utilisation was very low."
Even Nedbank, which had a highly successful Mzansi drive resulting in the largest number of Mzansi accounts of the big four banks, conceded that it experienced a shift away from the Mzansi account as clients' needs continued to change and more appropriate products were designed.
"With the Nedbank Ke Yona offering, we have seen a significant uptake more than three times that of the Mzansi account. Nedbank has more than three million entry-level clients, which include the youth," said Anton de Wet, managing executive of client engagement at Nedbank.
Gift Manyanga, chief executive of FNB EasyPlan, said customers tended to feel ambivalent about Mzansi. "Some customers find it a good fit; others felt it was a poor person's bank account. There are also limits and it becomes expensive with a high number of transactions, or if you have more than R15 000 in the account." Manyanga said there had been a dramatic fall in the uptake of new Mzansi accounts, but the transactional levels remained static.
For many customers the banks' own branded accounts are now cheaper than Mzansi. For example, an FNB Mzansi customer will pay R5 for a cash withdrawal, whereas an EasyPlan customer will pay R2.95. The only real cost advantage of Mzansi is that there are no additional Saswitch fees when withdrawing from another bank's ATM.
More than a bank account
The key for the banks is not to make the same mistakes. Therefore these new accounts come with a new strategy. They need to be sustainable and offer cross-selling opportunities, and they must not be just for low-income, low-transactional earners. In most cases customers earning up to R100 000 a year will find these accounts more cost-effective than present bank offerings. For example, Manyanga said FNB EasyPlan had customers earning up to R300 000 a year. He uses the account and his monthly banking fees are about R34.
"We see this as an opportunity to roll out full financial access through the cross-selling of other accounts in order to be profitable. It is not about flogging cheap accounts," said Lawrence Twigg, managing executive of entry-level and inclusive banking at Absa.
Cross-selling is a key driver of this account, which is why Absa requires customers to have a minimum regular income of R2 000 a month. In fact, the account becomes quite expensive for a customer who does not earn that.
The Nedbank Ke Yona account comprises the pay-as-you-use transactional account, funeral cover, personal loan, JustSave account and Vodacom M-pesa, a money transfer option, all of which enable clients to transact, borrow, save and insure. "We intend to provide them with relevant solutions throughout their life cycle: from the first time they open a savings account, their first job, car, home loan, or when they get married and start a family," said De Wet.
Manyanga said branches signed 15 000 new customers a month and issued 13 000 loans and 6 000 funeral policies. Of the loans, about 35% was new customers to FNB, which offered the opportunity to cross-sell an FNB transaction bank account.
The future of Mzansi
Absa will continue with its Mzansi account because it still has its place as an account for irregular workers or grant recipients, said Twigg. There is also the Absa prepaid debit card that provides basic transactional banking such as cash deposits and point-of-sale transactions. "The aim is to migrate those account-holders into Absa Transact once they are regular earners," said Twigg.
Standard Bank Access, Barnard said, was effectively the Mzansi and E-plan accounts amalgamated into one product. It is based on the MobileMoney account that has been rolled out in townships, where customers are signed up in a paperless electronic environment, dramatically cutting acquisition costs. Customers can open an account at their workplace or at their local spaza shop, known as a bank shop, where they can deposit and withdraw money at reduced rates and buy airtime and electricity.
Like Absa Transact and Nedbank Ke Yona, Standard Bank Access has no monthly fee. "We have simplified the fees, removed ad valorem pricing and there is no monthly fee," said Barnard. He added that it would be the most cost-effective banking product for people earning up to R8 000 a month, which gave it a potential market of 27-million people.
"By the end of the year the bank will have migrated all customers across to a better product with better functionality at a lower price."
Maya Fisher-French
Mail & Guardian
Feb 17, 2012
FNB was the first bank to challenge Capitec in offering a no-frills, simple bank account when it launched EasyPlan almost two years ago. The other banks have followed and all are now aiming to provide low-cost banking for less than R30 a month.
In July last year Nedbank launched the Ke Yona account; this month Absa extended its Transact account across all its branches and Standard Bank will soon announce its Access account, a paperless, electronic origination bank account.
These banking products are in essence a maturing of the Mzansi bank account. For some banks, Mzansi was a kneejerk reaction to the financial sector charter and it never became fully integrated into their overall banking model. Instead, it was an expensive exercise written off as a social obligation, rather than a real acquisition strategy.
"Mzansi was loss-making," said Leon Barnard, director of Standard Bank inclusive banking. "It had high cost origination in-branch, servicing was expensive and customer utilisation was very low."
Even Nedbank, which had a highly successful Mzansi drive resulting in the largest number of Mzansi accounts of the big four banks, conceded that it experienced a shift away from the Mzansi account as clients' needs continued to change and more appropriate products were designed.
"With the Nedbank Ke Yona offering, we have seen a significant uptake more than three times that of the Mzansi account. Nedbank has more than three million entry-level clients, which include the youth," said Anton de Wet, managing executive of client engagement at Nedbank.
Gift Manyanga, chief executive of FNB EasyPlan, said customers tended to feel ambivalent about Mzansi. "Some customers find it a good fit; others felt it was a poor person's bank account. There are also limits and it becomes expensive with a high number of transactions, or if you have more than R15 000 in the account." Manyanga said there had been a dramatic fall in the uptake of new Mzansi accounts, but the transactional levels remained static.
For many customers the banks' own branded accounts are now cheaper than Mzansi. For example, an FNB Mzansi customer will pay R5 for a cash withdrawal, whereas an EasyPlan customer will pay R2.95. The only real cost advantage of Mzansi is that there are no additional Saswitch fees when withdrawing from another bank's ATM.
More than a bank account
The key for the banks is not to make the same mistakes. Therefore these new accounts come with a new strategy. They need to be sustainable and offer cross-selling opportunities, and they must not be just for low-income, low-transactional earners. In most cases customers earning up to R100 000 a year will find these accounts more cost-effective than present bank offerings. For example, Manyanga said FNB EasyPlan had customers earning up to R300 000 a year. He uses the account and his monthly banking fees are about R34.
"We see this as an opportunity to roll out full financial access through the cross-selling of other accounts in order to be profitable. It is not about flogging cheap accounts," said Lawrence Twigg, managing executive of entry-level and inclusive banking at Absa.
Cross-selling is a key driver of this account, which is why Absa requires customers to have a minimum regular income of R2 000 a month. In fact, the account becomes quite expensive for a customer who does not earn that.
The Nedbank Ke Yona account comprises the pay-as-you-use transactional account, funeral cover, personal loan, JustSave account and Vodacom M-pesa, a money transfer option, all of which enable clients to transact, borrow, save and insure. "We intend to provide them with relevant solutions throughout their life cycle: from the first time they open a savings account, their first job, car, home loan, or when they get married and start a family," said De Wet.
Manyanga said branches signed 15 000 new customers a month and issued 13 000 loans and 6 000 funeral policies. Of the loans, about 35% was new customers to FNB, which offered the opportunity to cross-sell an FNB transaction bank account.
The future of Mzansi
Absa will continue with its Mzansi account because it still has its place as an account for irregular workers or grant recipients, said Twigg. There is also the Absa prepaid debit card that provides basic transactional banking such as cash deposits and point-of-sale transactions. "The aim is to migrate those account-holders into Absa Transact once they are regular earners," said Twigg.
Standard Bank Access, Barnard said, was effectively the Mzansi and E-plan accounts amalgamated into one product. It is based on the MobileMoney account that has been rolled out in townships, where customers are signed up in a paperless electronic environment, dramatically cutting acquisition costs. Customers can open an account at their workplace or at their local spaza shop, known as a bank shop, where they can deposit and withdraw money at reduced rates and buy airtime and electricity.
Like Absa Transact and Nedbank Ke Yona, Standard Bank Access has no monthly fee. "We have simplified the fees, removed ad valorem pricing and there is no monthly fee," said Barnard. He added that it would be the most cost-effective banking product for people earning up to R8 000 a month, which gave it a potential market of 27-million people.
"By the end of the year the bank will have migrated all customers across to a better product with better functionality at a lower price."
Maya Fisher-French
Mail & Guardian
Feb 17, 2012
Mzansi accounts reach dead end
The big banks in South Africa are scrambling to lure the country's 27-million customers in the mass market with more innovative and cheaper product offerings in a move that marks the near death of the Mzansi account.
FNB was the first bank to challenge Capitec in offering a no-frills, simple bank account when it launched EasyPlan almost two years ago. The other banks have followed and all are now aiming to provide low-cost banking for less than R30 a month.
In July last year Nedbank launched the Ke Yona account; this month Absa extended its Transact account across all its branches and Standard Bank will soon announce its Access account, a paperless, electronic origination bank account.
These banking products are in essence a maturing of the Mzansi bank account. For some banks, Mzansi was a kneejerk reaction to the financial sector charter and it never became fully integrated into their overall banking model. Instead, it was an expensive exercise written off as a social obligation, rather than a real acquisition strategy.
"Mzansi was loss-making," said Leon Barnard, director of Standard Bank inclusive banking. "It had high cost origination in-branch, servicing was expensive and customer utilisation was very low."
Even Nedbank, which had a highly successful Mzansi drive resulting in the largest number of Mzansi accounts of the big four banks, conceded that it experienced a shift away from the Mzansi account as clients' needs continued to change and more appropriate products were designed.
"With the Nedbank Ke Yona offering, we have seen a significant uptake more than three times that of the Mzansi account. Nedbank has more than three million entry-level clients, which include the youth," said Anton de Wet, managing executive of client engagement at Nedbank.
Gift Manyanga, chief executive of FNB EasyPlan, said customers tended to feel ambivalent about Mzansi. "Some customers find it a good fit; others felt it was a poor person's bank account. There are also limits and it becomes expensive with a high number of transactions, or if you have more than R15 000 in the account." Manyanga said there had been a dramatic fall in the uptake of new Mzansi accounts, but the transactional levels remained static.
For many customers the banks' own branded accounts are now cheaper than Mzansi. For example, an FNB Mzansi customer will pay R5 for a cash withdrawal, whereas an EasyPlan customer will pay R2.95. The only real cost advantage of Mzansi is that there are no additional Saswitch fees when withdrawing from another bank's ATM.
More than a bank account
The key for the banks is not to make the same mistakes. Therefore these new accounts come with a new strategy. They need to be sustainable and offer cross-selling opportunities, and they must not be just for low-income, low-transactional earners. In most cases customers earning up to R100 000 a year will find these accounts more cost-effective than present bank offerings. For example, Manyanga said FNB EasyPlan had customers earning up to R300 000 a year. He uses the account and his monthly banking fees are about R34.
"We see this as an opportunity to roll out full financial access through the cross-selling of other accounts in order to be profitable. It is not about flogging cheap accounts," said Lawrence Twigg, managing executive of entry-level and inclusive banking at Absa.
Cross-selling is a key driver of this account, which is why Absa requires customers to have a minimum regular income of R2 000 a month. In fact, the account becomes quite expensive for a customer who does not earn that.
The Nedbank Ke Yona account comprises the pay-as-you-use transactional account, funeral cover, personal loan, JustSave account and Vodacom M-pesa, a money transfer option, all of which enable clients to transact, borrow, save and insure. "We intend to provide them with relevant solutions throughout their life cycle: from the first time they open a savings account, their first job, car, home loan, or when they get married and start a family," said De Wet.
Manyanga said branches signed 15 000 new customers a month and issued 13 000 loans and 6 000 funeral policies. Of the loans, about 35% was new customers to FNB, which offered the opportunity to cross-sell an FNB transaction bank account.
The future of Mzansi
Absa will continue with its Mzansi account because it still has its place as an account for irregular workers or grant recipients, said Twigg. There is also the Absa prepaid debit card that provides basic transactional banking such as cash deposits and point-of-sale transactions. "The aim is to migrate those account-holders into Absa Transact once they are regular earners," said Twigg.
Standard Bank Access, Barnard said, was effectively the Mzansi and E-plan accounts amalgamated into one product. It is based on the MobileMoney account that has been rolled out in townships, where customers are signed up in a paperless electronic environment, dramatically cutting acquisition costs. Customers can open an account at their workplace or at their local spaza shop, known as a bank shop, where they can deposit and withdraw money at reduced rates and buy airtime and electricity.
Like Absa Transact and Nedbank Ke Yona, Standard Bank Access has no monthly fee. "We have simplified the fees, removed ad valorem pricing and there is no monthly fee," said Barnard. He added that it would be the most cost-effective banking product for people earning up to R8 000 a month, which gave it a potential market of 27-million people.
"By the end of the year the bank will have migrated all customers across to a better product with better functionality at a lower price."
Maya Fisher-French
Mail & Guardian
Feb 17, 2012
FNB was the first bank to challenge Capitec in offering a no-frills, simple bank account when it launched EasyPlan almost two years ago. The other banks have followed and all are now aiming to provide low-cost banking for less than R30 a month.
In July last year Nedbank launched the Ke Yona account; this month Absa extended its Transact account across all its branches and Standard Bank will soon announce its Access account, a paperless, electronic origination bank account.
These banking products are in essence a maturing of the Mzansi bank account. For some banks, Mzansi was a kneejerk reaction to the financial sector charter and it never became fully integrated into their overall banking model. Instead, it was an expensive exercise written off as a social obligation, rather than a real acquisition strategy.
"Mzansi was loss-making," said Leon Barnard, director of Standard Bank inclusive banking. "It had high cost origination in-branch, servicing was expensive and customer utilisation was very low."
Even Nedbank, which had a highly successful Mzansi drive resulting in the largest number of Mzansi accounts of the big four banks, conceded that it experienced a shift away from the Mzansi account as clients' needs continued to change and more appropriate products were designed.
"With the Nedbank Ke Yona offering, we have seen a significant uptake more than three times that of the Mzansi account. Nedbank has more than three million entry-level clients, which include the youth," said Anton de Wet, managing executive of client engagement at Nedbank.
Gift Manyanga, chief executive of FNB EasyPlan, said customers tended to feel ambivalent about Mzansi. "Some customers find it a good fit; others felt it was a poor person's bank account. There are also limits and it becomes expensive with a high number of transactions, or if you have more than R15 000 in the account." Manyanga said there had been a dramatic fall in the uptake of new Mzansi accounts, but the transactional levels remained static.
For many customers the banks' own branded accounts are now cheaper than Mzansi. For example, an FNB Mzansi customer will pay R5 for a cash withdrawal, whereas an EasyPlan customer will pay R2.95. The only real cost advantage of Mzansi is that there are no additional Saswitch fees when withdrawing from another bank's ATM.
More than a bank account
The key for the banks is not to make the same mistakes. Therefore these new accounts come with a new strategy. They need to be sustainable and offer cross-selling opportunities, and they must not be just for low-income, low-transactional earners. In most cases customers earning up to R100 000 a year will find these accounts more cost-effective than present bank offerings. For example, Manyanga said FNB EasyPlan had customers earning up to R300 000 a year. He uses the account and his monthly banking fees are about R34.
"We see this as an opportunity to roll out full financial access through the cross-selling of other accounts in order to be profitable. It is not about flogging cheap accounts," said Lawrence Twigg, managing executive of entry-level and inclusive banking at Absa.
Cross-selling is a key driver of this account, which is why Absa requires customers to have a minimum regular income of R2 000 a month. In fact, the account becomes quite expensive for a customer who does not earn that.
The Nedbank Ke Yona account comprises the pay-as-you-use transactional account, funeral cover, personal loan, JustSave account and Vodacom M-pesa, a money transfer option, all of which enable clients to transact, borrow, save and insure. "We intend to provide them with relevant solutions throughout their life cycle: from the first time they open a savings account, their first job, car, home loan, or when they get married and start a family," said De Wet.
Manyanga said branches signed 15 000 new customers a month and issued 13 000 loans and 6 000 funeral policies. Of the loans, about 35% was new customers to FNB, which offered the opportunity to cross-sell an FNB transaction bank account.
The future of Mzansi
Absa will continue with its Mzansi account because it still has its place as an account for irregular workers or grant recipients, said Twigg. There is also the Absa prepaid debit card that provides basic transactional banking such as cash deposits and point-of-sale transactions. "The aim is to migrate those account-holders into Absa Transact once they are regular earners," said Twigg.
Standard Bank Access, Barnard said, was effectively the Mzansi and E-plan accounts amalgamated into one product. It is based on the MobileMoney account that has been rolled out in townships, where customers are signed up in a paperless electronic environment, dramatically cutting acquisition costs. Customers can open an account at their workplace or at their local spaza shop, known as a bank shop, where they can deposit and withdraw money at reduced rates and buy airtime and electricity.
Like Absa Transact and Nedbank Ke Yona, Standard Bank Access has no monthly fee. "We have simplified the fees, removed ad valorem pricing and there is no monthly fee," said Barnard. He added that it would be the most cost-effective banking product for people earning up to R8 000 a month, which gave it a potential market of 27-million people.
"By the end of the year the bank will have migrated all customers across to a better product with better functionality at a lower price."
Maya Fisher-French
Mail & Guardian
Feb 17, 2012
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