Well, i had need to transfer a certain sum of money from Gtb to a vendor's account in another bank and i was told that it would get there the next day at 4pm ( i got there by 3:00pm). This was not good enough because the vendor will not supply the hardware next day unless he receives the money before 12 noon same day.
Then it occured to me that i could try to do similar transfer from my First bank account and for the good reason of having enough fund in that account to pay up in one installment.
Much to my surprise, i was told that i could do an instant payment transfer (which will get to the vendor immediately).With that i sought to be educated on the difference between the two modes of transfer by the two banks. Then i realised that Gtb was going to do a NEFT (National Electronic Fund Transfer ) while First bank had offered an Instant funds transfer system.
NEFT is an e-payment platform that takes a minimum of 24hrs to be effective because it has to go through clearing process while Instant funds transfer is instant, less than 2mins to be effective. Though one of the benefits of NEFT is that any payment credited to the beneficiary’s account is a cleared item i.e there is no possibility of the payment being reversed for insufficient funds, drawers confirmation, irregular signature or any other reasons associated with cheques, i still beleive that a well rounded service should offer the other options.
Going back to Gtb to find out why i have to do NEFT when i had explained that its urgent, they said it is to encourage customers to embrace internet banking (by use of a 'token'). Then i asked, what if i am a business man who is not internet savvy? And the teller smiled and said i don't look like such a person. Besides, i discovered that there were more charges to a NEFT transfer than there is for an Instant funds transfer.
I think its not a good reason to say customers are being encouraged to use internet banking (at this point i can imagine some of the traders asking their kids for help thereby risking important information).
I like Gtb in other ways but First bank did it for me today.
Going back to Gtb to find out why i have to do NEFT when i had explained that its urgent, they said it is to encourage customers to embrace internet banking (by use of a 'token'). Then i asked, what if i am a business man who is not internet savvy? And the teller smiled and said i don't look like such a person. Besides, i discovered that there were more charges to a NEFT transfer than there is for an Instant funds transfer.
I think its not a good reason to say customers are being encouraged to use internet banking (at this point i can imagine some of the traders asking their kids for help thereby risking important information).
I like Gtb in other ways but First bank did it for me today.
Since the advent of the cashless policy, NIP & NEFT payments are becoming more popular by the day... Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI think the focus should be easy and cost effective options in implementing in implementing the cashless policy
ReplyDeleteit's amazing how we go about making use of different services without understanding the intricacies surrounding them. personally now that i am aware that NEFT is more expensive than NIP, you be sure that first bank just gained one more customer in that regard. however, we must bear in mind that there may possibly be other services that would also endear you more to GTB.
ReplyDeletethanks for the info.