sep 21 2006

when are things going to change?

i got a call from the bank this afternoon. not just any call, it's one of those marketing calls that i normally don't take... but i took this one. it turns out it was more of a 'we'd like to know what you think of this service' call. ahhh, excellent...

so i let rip. now i have mentioned the bank charges before and how much i am not impressed with the banks. to actually speak with a live person from the bank about this, wow!

i let sandra* know that i think absa thinks i'm a stoopid customer. stoooopid... if they think that i would rather use their credit card than fnb's. why she wanted to know? well, you guys charge me 19.75% debit interest if i spend less than 10,000. if i spend more than 10,000, you charge me 16.25% - effectively encouraging me to get more in debt (quite honestly who can afford to pay back more than 10,000 on a cc every month?). at fnb (and standard bank) the credit card debit interest rate is a flat 17%, no 'rewards' for spending more or less than a certain amount every month... i couldn't find the cc interest rates on nedbank, page not found error!

having said all that i needed to, sandra said she would talk to her manager about this and get back to me. i must admit, i don't know what i expected - it wasn't much though. about 30 min later sandra phones back and says her manager wants to waiver all cc charges this month in a gesture of good faith... i'm like well thanks, but you still don't get it do you? you charge me more than double the interest rate set by the reserve bank and give me less than a quarter (on average) back if i 'save' my money! it's just so mad because most of the banks services just don't warrant these ridiculous amounts of money they are taking from us.

seriously, i'd love to know when this investigation into the high bank charges is going to yield positive results for the consumers?

* not her real name

Posted by sarah | ranting, debate, personal