Banking Secrets

So, I've just been on the phone with (one of) my bank(s), Standard Bank, and it's prompted a second post this morning.

I simply wanted to move some money around, transfer some cash across to my FNB Credit Card. But I noticed that my Monthly EAP Limit had shrunk, it was sitting at like a third of what I'd just bothered to go into the damned branch (hate having to do this!), queued and increased it to prior to making my holiday payment last month.

As per SB's website: What is an electronic account payment limit? An electronic account payment (EAP) limit is a monthly limit that you load to your card that allows you to make electronic account payments using Internet, telephone or cellphone banking or an AutoPlus machine. The limit is reduced every time you make an electronic payment. If you have loaded future-dated payments, the limit will be reduced on the day of payment. An EAP limit can only be loaded at a branch.

See, I need this amount to be huge, otherwise my money (and savings) are pretty much inaccessible to me. So I call them up to find out what happened. I mean to increase it I have to schlep to a branch, but I know I can decrease it via their Internet Banking. But I also know there's no way I've done this. Oh and also, the rule (as I understood it) is that you could increase it to whatever amount you liked, as long as you had those funds available in your accounts at the time.

Turns out they've just (01 June, I guess) implemented a new policy (post some kind of audit on they system) that will automatically reset your Monthly EAP Limit back to your salary each and every month. So please understand this: If you increase it today, it'll be back to your salary amount on the 1st July. What's even more annoying to me is that at The Big Corporate, my bond amount was deducted off before I got my salary (don't ask too many questions here, it didn't affect my tax one bit, sadly!), so the amount that they are using as "my monthly salary" is like just over 50% of what it actually should be! Which means I have *the most useless* Monthly EAP Limit in the world! And I'm now going to have to reset it on a monthly basis. Double sigh.

20080620 @ 15h50 Quick Update: I forgot to mention that you actually can save yourself the hassle of going into the branch to increase your EAP limit. You can send them a "secure message" (don't worry, it's one of their menu options) from within your Internet Banking Profile asking them to increase it. But you're still gonna have to do this on a monthly basis.

Needless to say, they haven't bothered giving anyone a heads up about this new little gem, apparently there were too many people to tell or something equally ridiculous. And naturally, I hear, they've been getting complaints a-plenty.

So aside from really needing a good moan about this, I thought it only fair that someone should be letting all you unsuspecting banking victims into the loop ;)

20080623 @ 09h35 Follow Up: So I got a call on Saturday morning from good ol' Standard Bank regarding my Secure Message requesting an EAP increase. Oddly enough (and in complete contradiction to what I'd been told on Friday), the woman asked me if this should be a "permanent increase". I don't know how long the non-permanent increases last for, but I definitely opted for the permanent option! I mean, hello? So fingers crossed that this monthly EAP revert may not be a definite thing :)