What you need to know before moving to Discovery Bank
As Discovery Bank grows, it is actively migrating Discovery Card users on FNB to its new platform.
This process is not without its frustrations, however.
As the Discovery credit card was based on FNB’s systems, many customers grew accustomed to quick transfers to other FNB accounts and other useful features.
Discovery Bank is an entirely separate entity to FNB, however, which means that its systems work differently and may present some problems to Discovery Card customers used to the old system.
We’ve outlined some of the frustrations experienced by FNB customers below.
Unwelcome changes
Discovery Card customers who migrated to Discovery Bank found that they no longer receive Discovery Miles for every transaction.
Instead, they are offered a selection of rewards – including a free cup of coffee at participating retailers. Despite this, monthly charges can be higher than the Discovery Card.
Apart from the altered Discovery Miles benefits, Discovery Card users also found that they could no longer manage their account balances, transactions, and other functions through an accessible web portal.
Discovery Bank is an app-only platform, which can make it more difficult for less technologically-adept customers to print out bank statements and facilitate transactions.
Another major difference is the transaction time from other FNB accounts. Previously, transfers into the Discovery Card account would be instant, but they are now subject to industry standards for inter-bank transfers.
There are upsides to switching to Discovery Bank, including the ability to limit secondary cards and integrate your banking with other Discovery products.
However, some customers who have migrated from Discovery Card to Discovery Bank have expressed disappointment in the lack of parity between the two services.
Discovery Miles and migration
MyBroadband asked Discovery Bank about the state of its Discovery Card migration as well as the frustrations experienced by consumers when moving to the new platform.
“Migration is tracking ahead of plan and we are preparing for our first bulk migration in the next two months,” Discovery Bank told MyBroadband.
Regarding the earning and availability of Discovery Miles, the bank said users who migrated would be able to access these balances from next month.
“We communicated in June that Discovery Miles will be made available to Discovery Bank clients. We launched an exciting new Discovery Miles benefit on 11 September,” the bank said.
“Clients that migrated from FNB to Discovery Bank will be able to view and use their Discovery Miles from October 2019. Miles will be backdated to when the client joined the Bank.”
“From October, clients with Discovery Miles can convert their Discovery Miles to cash, spend these miles with our partners including Kulula.com and transfer their miles to other Discovery Bank customers,” it said.
No online banking
When it comes to complaints about the lack of an online banking website, Discovery Bank said this would not add anything to its proposition apart from extra costs and complexity.
“Discovery Bank has no online portal and has no intention to have one – we are a digital-only, app-only bank,” the bank said.
The bank also acknowledged that standard inter-bank transfers to Discovery Bank are restrained by industry processes and would not be instant unless the customer chose to send an instant transaction.
“Incoming transfers to Discovery Bank – Electronic Funds Transfer (EFTs) are subject to industry standard cut off and clearing time,” Discovery Bank said.
“An EFT processed by the sending bank before 16:00 should reach Discovery Bank the same evening and we provide value to the customer that same day.”
“If processed by the sending bank after 16:00, the payment will only reach Discovery Bank the next day (once again we provide value the moment we receive).”
The bank added that it offers its customers the lowest-cost real-time payments in the industry, allowing them to send and receive money without being subjected to the old EFT clearing system.
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