FNB Graphite

I also got offered this and I believe its a complete waste of time at this price unless you value having a different colour cheque card next to your iPhone and Audi keys. First of all FNBs private bankers are often so incompetent that you end up sorting stuff out yourself. The so-called personalised service is not in the least comparable to proper private banking such as Investec. Then have a good look at the fine print. With almost every benefit comes a hidden condition. Example: you need to have a positive eBucks balance of x to do y.

From my poor experience with FNB Platinum I dont feel FNB has earned my trust to give them an extra R200. I only bank with FNB and even though I qualify for graphite I havent even made it past eBucks level 2 after 4 years.
 
saiman said:
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From my poor experience with FNB Platinum I dont feel FNB has earned my trust to give them an extra R200. I only bank with FNB and even though I qualify for graphite I havent even made it past eBucks level 2 after 4 years.
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Agreed they can be a bit incompetent or uninformed so I have learnt to bear that in mind when using them :p They aren't totally useless though and I don't expect private banking levels of service since they aren't private bankers :)

WRT your eBucks level, I think you must be doing something wrong. With the new rules, it should be quite easy to get to level 4 or 5 within one month. I've been on level 5 for 2 years once I adapted my banking behaviour to take advantage of the rules.

Regarding Graphite, I am somewhat tempted to upgrade but do need to investigate a bit more before deciding if worthwhile for me.
 
Why don't they have this on the standard site ?
Does it slot between Platinum and Private?
What do the cards look like?

According to the site, Platinum goes to R1.1m and then Private starts at R1.1m - nothing in berween
 
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It's by invitation only, and yes it's in between platinum and private, a monthly salary of 32.5k required per month. I can only guess that it's in some sort of pilot phase where they want to see what the popularity and profitability is like (for them).

I think the cards are black like Private Client cards, but hopefully Se@n can confirm.
 
Thanks Stronium.

Salary doesn't make it seem like it fits inbetween - that's under 400kpa so almost like a replacement?

Classic 36k - 80k
Gold 80k - 350k
Platinum - 350k - 1.1m
Private - 1.1m and up

Tough to get much info on it though - but it seems the price of R345.00 is everything as well (cheque card, credit card, ebucks subs and petro, for some reason)
 
True Dolby, the salary requirement is only 3.5k p.m. more than Platinum. In the invitation from my banker, it mentions "This is the next level of Premier". Perhaps not a replacement but maybe they are just testing the waters on a certain profile of customer? Perhaps later they might increase the barrier to entry so that it slots in between the 350k and 1.1mil p.a. requirement?
 
StrontiumDog said:
It's by invitation only, and yes it's in between platinum and private, a monthly salary of 32.5k required per month. I can only guess that it's in some sort of pilot phase where they want to see what the popularity and profitability is like (for them).

I think the cards are black like Private Client cards, but hopefully Se@n can confirm.
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Nett deposits need to be R32500 and above. The actual entry criteria is aimed at clients earning R750k per annum and above, cost to company including all benefits. But as we know banks bend the rules to suit themselves and as such are prepared to take the R345 in bank charges per month even if you don't quite qualify and at the end of the day you lose as you then get cut out of the rewards program.

I joined Graphite during its pilot phase in December 2012, from what i can tell they having been aggressively marketing it this year and to me this indicates it is no longer in pilot.

The reason for the hidden web page vs having it on the main FNB site is to maintain that 'invite only' status - a marketing trick in my opinion.

The cards are all black but with a design, see below one of the nicer more classic looking cards.

ImageUploadedByMyBroadband1413573984.011873.jpg
 
Thanks guys.

Banker lady said I can get this, but there was very little information it.
 
Thanks Se@n, well that clears that mystery up then :) I had noticed a friend of mine had a black FNB card many months ago. I assumed he was on Private Banking, he kept denying it and didn't let me see the card properly.

In July a former Premier Banker of mine mailed me an invite. I ignored it as it didn't seem worthwhile. Last month my friend finally spilled some beans on the card and said that he would get me an invite. Then last month my actual banker sent an invite, at which point I clicked, oh this is the black card I keep catching glances of. When I queried with my friend, he said when he asked his banker to check, she said I was already sent an invite. So it seems they do keep track of these things and I suppose there is some benefit for the Premier Bankers to have Graphite clients as opposed to being saddled with whiny Platinum clients ;)

edit: So checking the 2 different invites sent to me, I noticed a couple of odd things. In the one email, there were remnants of someone else's GMail signature at the bottom of the invite email. :erm: I'm assuming another client of hers as he doesn't work for FNB :whistle:. In the other invite, there was actually an html attachment which was the correspondence sent to my banker by another client of her's via the FNB online banking site!! :wtf:

These premier bankers sure ain't tech savvy are they?
 
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The R345 extra per month is quite a bit more for me. Being the cheap bastard I am, I am on Fee-Saver so I don't pay any cheque account fee provided I maintain a minimum 9k balance. So my only monthly charge is about R65 a month for two Platinum credit cards.
 
StrontiumDog said:
The R345 extra per month is quite a bit more for me. Being the cheap bastard I am, I am on Fee-Saver so I don't pay any cheque account fee provided I maintain a minimum 9k balance. So my only monthly charge is about R65 a month for two Platinum credit cards.
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Join the club.. was asked to join a few months ago, and asked them what the benefits to ME where.. they started rattling off all sorts of things like SLOW lounge access etc... stopped them right in their tracks and asked them how many times I had actually used that specific benefit. They couldn't answer so i basically told the banker, if you can come back and show me clear proof that it will save me money, I will consider it.. but currently it will cost me more so I'm not interested.
 
When I become a high flying jet-setter then definitely it will be worth it :) Or if I want to make use of those 5 free point to point transfers.
 
Work colleague has got the Graphite package but the cut and design on my Platinum card looks way better than his and I'm paying a lot less banking fees than him. I don't see any benefit.
 
StrontiumDog said:
The R345 extra per month is quite a bit more for me. Being the cheap bastard I am, I am on Fee-Saver so I don't pay any cheque account fee provided I maintain a minimum 9k balance. So my only monthly charge is about R65 a month for two Platinum credit cards.
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I tried to change to fee saver but it no longer exists
 
StrontiumDog said:
So... get her to send you the invite which will have all the info attached.
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Will called ; called me Friday afternoon and hasn't sent as yet. As someone else said, they're not always the most efficient ... ;)

She rattled off features which probably won't concern me either, but I'm thinking the unlimited ebucks may work out if/when I renovate mid 2015?

Regarding costs, I think it's R145.00 extra pm and that includes ebucks membership?
 
StrontiumDog said:
The R345 extra per month is quite a bit more for me. Being the cheap bastard I am, I am on Fee-Saver so I don't pay any cheque account fee provided I maintain a minimum 9k balance. So my only monthly charge is about R65 a month for two Platinum credit cards.
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Same here. Offered Private Banking. Said no thanks. Fee Saver on Private Banking is 100k.
 
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