Banking with ABSA: What do you think?

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blue-eye-boy

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So I must get a new bank account soon, for my salary and basic transactions. I wont have many transactions per month. What I need is a account, credit card and Garage card.

So I thought ABSA is the way to go, cause I am with them now, savings account and a Credit card. No need for a cheque book or overdraft. Later on I want to buy a house through the bank I choose now.

This one seems not too bad. With the silver package price with the monthly fee of R99, including 25 free transactions, cellphone and internet banking.

What do you think?
 
I'd be weary about basing this on a homeloan you have not applied for yet. Trust me, banks don't give a crap whether you bank with them or not. I bank with Absa [for years ], and i don't really have complaints in terms of my "banking" [salary/cc/cheque etc] that is until i started asking for a home loan....

Guess which bank gave me the WORST home loan option? yes, Absa. So i ended up with FNB where i've never banked before. FNB is also pretty eager for me to simply move everything "rock stock and barrel" across [so i can link my homeloan to my other accounts] , but i'll give it a few months and see. This is the same effect as with cellphone operators, once you're a existing/upgrading customer, you're crap...once you're a potential NEW customer, you're golden.

Anyway maybe you're luckier with homeloan, and sure there are some benefits if you do bank with a certain bank when applying......but there is no guarentee. Absa is currently still the most strict about homeloan policies [rather they are the last to join the party recently] as compared to the other banks, however this is just a recession thing. Might change in the future.

In the end though, Absa worked for me so far. Internet banking is pretty good. As for costs, i actually got more of a shocker at FNB charging me R8 on every card transaction (regardless of the transaction cost). This is now on my freshly opened cheque account. Still waiting for them to explain what exactly is that about, but i guess it's because i'm on a "no monthly fee" option, so they rip you apart on transactions. Absa got their costs too, but they do hide it alot more. FNB actually have 2 columns [which i like] , showing the actual transaction and the applicable transaction cost in the 2nd column. Absa obscure it a little by just adding a second "transaction" . So if you do alot of transactions on a given day, it's not clear what costs went with what transaction. So while FNB shocked me with that cost, i was pretty surprised by how clearly visible it was...with ABSA it's actually quite a task to figure out what is my costs.

On a side note:
Absa got "Absa Rewards" vs FNB got "ebucks" . Guess which one works better.....
 
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ABSA; uggh. We're moving our home loan away from then, well did it about 6 months ago, still waiting for it to go through. I get 2/3 phone calls a week regarding it from them. Their home loans dept needs to catch a wake up!!
 
Same story here.

Was with Absa for a long while - when I applied for a home loan, Blapsa declined my application and Standard Bank approved it.

Cancelled my accounts with Absa as they were too expensive then.
 
Opposite

diabolus said:
I'd be weary about basing this on a homeloan you have not applied for yet. Trust me, banks don't give a crap whether you bank with them or not. I bank with Absa [for years ], and i don't really have complaints in terms of my "banking" [salary/cc/cheque etc] that is until i started asking for a home loan....

Guess which bank gave me the WORST home loan option? yes, Absa. So i ended up with FNB where i've never banked before. FNB is also pretty eager for me to simply move everything "rock stock and barrel" across [so i can link my homeloan to my other accounts] , but i'll give it a few months and see. This is the same effect as with cellphone operators, once you're a existing/upgrading customer, you're crap...once you're a potential NEW customer, you're golden.

Anyway maybe you're luckier with homeloan, and sure there are some benefits if you do bank with a certain bank when applying......but there is no guarentee. Absa is currently still the most strict about homeloan policies [rather they are the last to join the party recently] as compared to the other banks, however this is just a recession thing. Might change in the future.

In the end though, Absa worked for me so far. Internet banking is pretty good. As for costs, i actually got more of a shocker at FNB charging me R8 on every card transaction (regardless of the transaction cost). This is now on my freshly opened cheque account. Still waiting for them to explain what exactly is that about, but i guess it's because i'm on a "no monthly fee" option, so they rip you apart on transactions. Absa got their costs too, but they do hide it alot more. FNB actually have 2 columns [which i like] , showing the actual transaction and the applicable transaction cost in the 2nd column. Absa obscure it a little by just adding a second "transaction" . So if you do alot of transactions on a given day, it's not clear what costs went with what transaction. So while FNB shocked me with that cost, i was pretty surprised by how clearly visible it was...with ABSA it's actually quite a task to figure out what is my costs.

On a side note:
Absa got "Absa Rewards" vs FNB got "ebucks" . Guess which one works better.....
Click to expand...

I actually had the opposite result.
Prior 2009 (i.e. In Jan 2009, all banks have changed their policies - like you cant sniff -2 anymore), Absa usually gave me interest rates slightly better rates than other banks.
But this year, they have given me far far better rates then other banks. But this could also be that i bank with them only.
 
I would refer you to FNB but they've shagged their customers this year with bank charges, so fsck-em'.
I used to pay R68 a month for unlimited electronic transactions & ATM withdrawals. Late last year I get called regarding an upgrade to gold account status without any increase in account fee or drawbacks whatsoever, or so I thought. Come May 2009, the R68 went up to R84, a MASSIVE 24% increase. If I stayed on a silver status, it would've went up to R78.
 
DO NOT FOR THE LIFE OF YOU GO WITH ABSA!!!!!!!!!

Just search these forums and you'll get 5% of WHY you shouldn't. Seriously. They overcharge, they're underhanded and NOT customer friendly.

Getting YOUR money out of YOUR account costs you an arm and a leg. At this point I'd refer you to Capitec.... think you'd be impressed AND pay a **** load less in banking fee's
 
I would suggest the FNB everyday accounts. But seem like those have changed a bit.

Also checkout Nedbanks Savvy account - R65 per month mostly unlimited transactions, with garage card, internet banking, cheque card. However this account is for people that do not do their banking at branch tellers i.e. you mostly use internet or other self service channels. There are additional charges for using a bank teller.
 
As Acid and the others said - go with Capitec or Wizzit.

Stay away from Blapsa et al. They care only for their bottom line and not about their customers at all.

How long was I with Absa? I think my mother opened a savings acc for me with them when they still were called Volkskas, way back in the '70's. And I remained a customer with them for until 5 years ago when I closed down my savings and credit card accounts.

Reason - too expensive, my banking expenses per month was exceeding R200.
 
And imagine. R200 per client per month. How much money they rake in JUST by charging you banking fee's. This doesn't even go with the loans and interest you pay back! Not to mention the "administration" fee's ON the loan you pay each month.

They're out there to steal your money, not keep it safe.
 
superskully said:
I actually had the opposite result.
Prior 2009 (i.e. In Jan 2009, all banks have changed their policies - like you cant sniff -2 anymore), Absa usually gave me interest rates slightly better rates than other banks.
But this year, they have given me far far better rates then other banks. But this could also be that i bank with them only.
Click to expand...

Well Absa was/is the bank with the largest share in homeloans , in the past they were very good and gave alot of people good personalized deals. So yes, i'm sure if you know who to talk to and where to get some strings pulled you MIGHT get something sorted.

Unfortunately, in the last year, Absa was the one with the most absurd requirements [20%+ deposits and such], where the other banks STD/FNB was giving 95%-104% loans. Only in the last 3 weeks did Absa "soften" this, but it's a little too late in my case. Even while i applied they were not very forthcoming, i.e. i ask for 90% loan, they say, no, we give you a 85% loan. Then a week later they "announce" they are now granting 90% loans again IF you bank with them , yet FNB is giving out 95% loans to -anyone- whether you bank with them or not....now really...it left a really bad taste in my mouth.

So at this stage i think Absa is not entirely on-par with the market and customer needs, maybe they feel having the largest share of homeloans is too much a risk and therefore they can afford to be very strict, who knows. Either way, i did not get the impression Absa WANTED to really give me a homeloan [even though they did preliminary approve], where with FNB i could see they want to grab some market......in fact i did not get the impression Absa wanted to give anyone homeloans.
 
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diabolus said:
Well Absa was/is the bank with the largest share in homeloans , in the past they were very good and gave alot of people good personalized deals. So yes, i'm sure if you know who to talk to and where to get some strings pulled you MIGHT get something sorted.

Unfortunately, in the last year, Absa was the one with the most absurd requirements [20%+ deposits and such], where the other banks STD/FNB was giving 95%-104% loans. Only in the last 3 weeks did Absa "soften" this, but it's a little too late in my case. Even while i applied they were not very forthcoming, i.e. i ask for 90% loan, they say, no, we give you a 85% loan. Then a week later they "announce" they are now granting 90% loans again IF you bank with them , yet FNB is giving out 95% loans to -anyone- whether you bank with them or not....now really...it left a really bad taste in my mouth.

So at this stage i think Absa is not entirely on-par with the market and customer needs, maybe they feel having the largest share of homeloans is too much a risk and therefore they can afford to be very strict, who knows. Either way, i did not get the impression Absa WANTED to really give me a homeloan [even though they did preliminary approve], where with FNB i could see they want to grab some market......in fact i did not get the impression Absa wanted to give anyone homeloans.
Click to expand...

You highlight the point I (and many others) are trying to make. ABSA is not forthcoming with information. Trying to screw you whichever way possible (the kama sutra has less positions they have) and would do anything for you to stay with them even refuse to close your account upon your request

Yes. You heard right. Refusing to close your accounts ON YOUR REQUEST is one of the many "tricks of the trade" ABSA now employs. Several managers later and a phone call to the residence of the REGIONAL MANAGER of ABSA later (spanning over several days and several hours spent at the branch) the account was finally closed.

This doesn't exclude the fact the house bond is still at ABSA (which will move soon enough). Being super-awesome-intelligent, opted for my own life insurance to cover everything (cheaper and I reap the benefits after the home has been paid off, saving 100k odd on interest on the bond at least). Yet, they keep phoning me saying they're going to impose penalties if I don't take out life cover with them... this has been going on for years now.

Threatening them with lawyers to see if they will stop harassing me
 
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