A letter to MyPE about perceived poor service from Standard Bank (Standard Bank – Moving Backwards) reminded me of an outstanding query I personally had recently:
I have an E-Plan Savings account that I use for payments to Standard Bank’s Auto Share Invest scheme – I must say that it is very reasonable and I don’t get charged a monthly fee for access – so long as I buy a certain minimal amount of shares per month. In fact Auto Share Invest is one of the reasons why I stay with Standard Bank.
It happens that I sometimes have to move money into the E-Plan account to pay for purchase of shares.
Last month I placed an order for two different sets of shares via a future dated payment for 25 March. On 23 March I transferred money from an account with a rival bank to the Standard Bank E-Plan account to cover the two upcoming debits.
When I looked at the E-Plan account on 26 March I could see that the first line of my statement for 25 March 2013 reflected the credit from the 23rd of March, the second line reflected the first purchase of shares and the next showed the return of my second order as the result of ‘insufficient funds’.
Looking at the balances in the sequence of events on the statement it is clear even today that sufficient funds were available – see below for the 6 pertinent lines from my statement (amounts removed to potentially save me some embarrassment):
- 2013-03-20: SERVICE FEE ##
– last transaction before I transferred money to the Standard Bank (SB) E-Plan account - 2013-03-25: CREDIT TRANSFER CAPITEC AWS CAPITEC 2503
– the CREDIT from money transferred on 23 March to my SB E-Plan account - 2013-03-25: IB FUTURE-DATED PAYMENT TO I/C STANDARD FINANC 317113054
– the FIRST order to buy shares goes through - 2013-03-25: FEE-IB PAYMENT UNSUCCESSFUL I/C STANDARD F NANC 2503
– this is the return of the SECOND set of shares bought - 2013-03-25: SERVICE FEE ##
– for the bounce - 2013-04-03: MONTHLY MANAGEMENT FEE 30413 ##
– next transaction
Now, the ordinary guy would go HUH?
So I fire an e-mail off to Standard Bank and get a stock answer that there were no funds. I ask to have my concern escalated and paste the lines from my statement (as above but including the amounts). You will just have to believe me that the statement, according to Standard Bank’s own records, shows that there WERE funds available. I get fobbed off with a stock answer.
So, today I decide to phone Standard Bank and voice my concern. Well – it was an hour of going around in circles and what do I get told?
- Even although my statement and balance says that the credit occurred before the debits that the debits actually occurred before credit.
- That the reason why I see the credit is because that the statement is ‘re-arranged’ by IT to reflect credits first and then debits on each day. (I have fired off a question via Twitter – scroll down)
- That this mysterious ‘re-arrangement’ by IT happens every night but that processing of transfers only happens on business days – HUH? Do bank employees physically have to go and fetch the money to be placed into a suspense account?
- That it takes up to THREE business days to reflect a payment and that Saturday is not a business day even though the branches are open.
- That the payments from foreign accounts go into a ‘suspense account’ before being reflected.
- That if I want money to reflect immediately I must go to an ATM and deposit cash.
Are we living in the 18th century?
I put it to the call center team leader that if I had to take a copy of my statement into the street and ask the first person I see to explain how I could have a positive balance and still see a return on my account they would be at pains to explain it.
I THINK I am a reasonably intelligent person but the reasons and explanations I was given do not make sense – God help someone with less intelligence than I!
Conceding that there was no ways I could prove that I pleaded with the call centre person to please escalate my concerns so that Standard Bank could ensure that their statements reflect the PROPER sequence of events and NOT some IT styled concept of what will ‘look neat’.
Standard Bank – you need to make your statements intelligible, with a TIME and DATE stamp for each transaction – that way dumb people such as I will then UNDERSTAND your mumbo jumbo.
See below:
@AskSBSA Is the a sequence of events on my statement in order of receipt?
about 19 hours ago via webReplyRetweetFavorite
First Reply:
@mype Hi there. That is correct, however Card transactions might be banked a few days later by merchants, affecting the posted date.
about 19 hours ago via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite
My Reply:
@AskSBSA Not according to your call centre – they say credits always reflect first and then debits
about 19 hours ago via webReplyRetweetFavorite
SB’s Reply:
@mype That sounds strange, Please DM us your number so that we can assist your with a response with a better understanding of the matter.
about 19 hours ago via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite
Then:
@AskSBSA My number can be found here: http://t.co/jePMZC2p9R
about 19 hours ago via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@AskSBSA Maybe this will help: http://t.co/PM6ZsYdAAY
about 17 hours ago via webReplyRetweetFavorite
PS: After being told by the call center team leader that money can take up to 3 business days to reflect I challenged her by transferring a nominal amount from Capitec to Standard Bank at 14h39 today – lets wait and see if it reflects to-morrow or on Monday – #justsaying. This will make a mockery of the timing and make my case just a little bit stronger.
