Banking: get mobile or get left behind

Illustration: Colin Daniel

Illustration: Colin Daniel

Published Oct 6, 2013

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Up to 80 percent of South Africans use a cellphone, and there are more active SIM cards in the country than there are people. For many years now, more South Africans have used cellphones than desktop computers to do their banking.

Arthur Goldstuck, the managing director of World Wide Worx, says only about 30 percent of cellphone users in South Africa use a smartphone (see “Techie terms”, below).

Even if your cellphone is not a smartphone, you can use it to perform some basic banking and prepaid transactions.

All of the “big four” banks offer more or less the same services via cellphone banking (see “What you can do on your phone”, below). At the very least, you can check account balances, transfer money between accounts, pay beneficiaries, and buy prepaid airtime.

“This type of mobile banking is popular with the mass market,” Dione Sankar, the head of cellphone banking and messaging at First National Bank (FNB), says.

FNB has four million customers who use cellphone banking, out of almost seven million retail clients.

Absa also has four million customers registered for cellphone banking, Adrian Vermooten, head of digital channels and payments at Absa, says.

Standard Bank has more than three million customers registered for cellphone banking – out of just over 11 million retail banking customers, across personal and business segments, says Vuyo Mkapo, the head of channel design and development at Standard Bank.

To bank via your cellphone, you first need to register for the service. Most banks allow you to register at a branch, via a call centre, or on your internet banking profile. Some banks allow you to do it yourself using your cellphone.

Cellphone banking can only be done from your cellphone. Your number is linked to your profile at the bank or to an SMS notification service used by your bank. You should never divulge your PIN or log-in credentials to a third party.

Once you’ve registered for cellphone banking, to do your banking you enter a “dial string” – a string of characters and numbers unique to your bank. You will then be prompted to enter your PIN, and this will enable you to transact.

Watch the costs. Although none of the banks charges a monthly subscription fee for cellphone banking, not all transactions are free. Typically, only balance enquiries, mini-statements and prepaid transactions are free.

Inter-account transfers and beneficiary payments, for example, cost you either the same as they would cost if you did them using an ATM or whatever is applicable to the bank cost package you’re on.

At most banks, mobile banking refers to cellphone banking, internet banking and banking with an app. Transaction fees on this channel depend on the account held and the pricing option.

You need airtime to do cellphone banking, although some banks cover the airtime costs if you use the service. For example, Absa customers who are with Vodacom do not need airtime to dial the Absa dial string, Vermooten says.

Telephone banking charges also depend on your account and pricing plan, but speaking to a consultant costs more than telephone banking via menu-driven selections.

Bank websites were not originally designed for the browsers on mobile phones, so all of the banks have developed mobi sites for customers who want to bank online using smartphones or feature phones that have internet browsing capabilities.

To access your bank’s mobi site, type in the URL of the site: www.absa.mobi, www.fnb.mobi or www.nedbank.mobi. (Standard Bank’s mobi site was discontinued in July because customers using it made up less than one percent of the bank’s mobile banking customer base, the bank says.)

You can bank as long as you have cellphone reception and airtime. And you need to be registered for online banking to make full use of your bank’s mobi site.

Generally, the capabilities of mobi sites and internet banking sites are the same, Sankar says, but mobi sites have been “overshadowed by bespoke apps designed for specific devices”.

WHAT YOU CAN DO ON YOUR PHONE

Absa

Absa cellphone banking enables you to:

* View account balances;

* View statements;

* Do inter-account transfers;

* Pay bills and beneficiaries;

* Do once-off payments without having to create a beneficiary;

* Send proof of payment to yourself or a beneficiary when making a payment;

* Transfer funds to a recipient who can then withdraw the funds from any Absa ATM without a card or bank account, using the access code you create (called CashSend);

* Make a cardless ATM withdrawal;

* Apply for a personal loan;

* Pay traffic fines;

* Buy prepaid airtime for yourself or for someone else on any mobile network; and

* Send and receive funds internationally (via Western Union).

To register for cellphone banking at Absa enter *120*2272# into your phone and follow the prompts. For help, call 0860 111 123.

First National Bank

FNB cellphone banking enables you to:

* Check account balances;

* View transaction history on your accounts;

* Transfer money between your FNB accounts;

* Transfer money via MoneyGram;

* Create individual beneficiaries;

* Pay saved beneficiaries;

* Pay traffic fines;

* Buy prepaid airtime for yourself or for someone else on any mobile network;

* Buy prepaid SMS and data bundles;

* Buy prepaid electricity;

* Buy prepaid Telkom vouchers;

* Send money via eWallet to somebody with a cellphone registered in South Africa;

* Apply for a loan; and

* Buy Lotto and PowerBall tickets.

To register for cellphone banking at FNB enter *120*321# into your phone and follow the prompts. For help, call 087 575 9405.

Nedbank

Nedbank cellphone banking enables you to:

* Check account balances;

* View mini-statements;

* Pay beneficiaries;

* Add beneficiaries;

* Make and edit recurring payments;

* Make inter-account transfers;

* Make once-off payments (to an account that is not saved as a beneficiary);

* Pay your tax or make a UIF contribution via eFiling;

* Send money via m-pesa to anybody with a cellphone registered in South Africa;

* Buy prepaid airtime from Cell C, MTN, Virgin Mobile and Vodacom;

* Change the PIN and password you use to access any self-service banking channel; and

* Order a cheque book.

To register for cellphone banking at Nedbank, enter *120*001# into your phone and follow the prompts. For help, call 0860 555 111.

Standard Bank

Standard Bank cellphone banking enables you to:

* Check account balances;

* Get a mini-statement;

* Do inter-account transfers;

* Make beneficiary payments; and

* Buy prepaid airtime from Vodacom, MTN, Cell C or Virgin Mobile.

To register for cellphone banking at Standard Bank, enter *120*2345# into your phone and follow the prompts. For help, call 0860 238 837.

TECHIE TERMS

Feature phone: a low-end cellphone that has less computing ability than a smartphone. (Source: www.wikipedia.org)

Smartphone: a cellphone built on a mobile operating system, with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than a feature phone. (Source: www.wikipedia.org)

Mobi site: a website that is optimised for viewing on a cellphone.

Tablet: a portable computer that uses a touchscreen and is typically smaller and lighter than a laptop. Some tablets have fold-up keyboards, such as iPad and Motorola Xoom. (Source: www.techterms.com)

USSD: Unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) is a technology similar to SMS. USSD is present on all South African mobile communications networks. It’s more secure than SMS because it does not store any typed information on the cellphone. The service is session-based, which means that in each session you will be validated and transaction information can be saved. (Source: Capitec)

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