Banking2.11.2021

You could end up owing eBucks to FNB

First National Bank (FNB) customers should take care when spending their eBucks before the end of the month in which they receive them, or they could end up owing the bank.

An FNB customer recently discovered that his eBucks account could go into the negative after the bank made an adjustment two weeks after he received his eBucks.

He had earned a total of 12,194 eBucks (worth R1,219.40) on 11 and 12 October 2021 for his qualifying spend in September 2021 while he was on eBucks Reward Level 5.

He subsequently spent almost all of the eBucks on fuel in October.

However, on 25 October, his eBucks account was debited with 3,210 eBucks (R321) when it only had 194 eBucks (R19.40) left. This meant his account reflected a negative balance of 3,016 eBucks (-R301.60).

The eBucks adjustment contained the phrase “Cheque shopping”, which led him to believe FNB had mistakenly identified certain transactions were made on his cheque card instead of his credit card, which would carry a penalty for his reward level.

However, that was not the case, as his eBucks statement still showed R0.00 for Total Cheque Spend.

He then identified that one of the levelling requirements, to perform at least four payments on a digital or streaming service using a virtual card, had not been maxed out as indicated when he received his eBucks.

Before the adjustment, his eBucks “Track my rewards” tab showed FNB had recorded four transactions qualified for the requirement, which meant he received 2,000 levelling points.

Following the adjustment, he received only 1,000 points because only three transactions were counted.

This resulted in his eBucks Reward Level dropping from 5 to 4, suggesting he was supposed to earn fewer eBucks.

The deducted amount was made even more significant because he had also received a fuel double-up allocation based on his level 5 status for only filling up at Engen garages during the quarter.

He called the eBucks helpline to find out why the qualifying virtual card transactions had changed.

An agent told him that one of the transactions, a Checkers Sixty60 payment on 29 September, had only been banked by the merchant on 4 October 2021, which meant it would only count towards the next month’s eBucks allocation.

The eBucks Terms and Conditions state that FNB has the right to deduct any eBucks “incorrectly allocated” for whatever reason, even if the account may show a negative balance.

In such an instance, the customer will be held liable to repay the equivalent eBucks in Rand to FNB to bring the eBucks account from the negative balance to a zero balance within 30 calendar days of a written demand.

eBucks

The customer discovered that even excluding the Checkers Sixty60 transaction from the reward level calculation should not have moved him down a reward level.

Without the Checkers Sixty60 purchase, there were still four qualifying transactions using his virtual card performed well before the month’s end.

These included a Google Play annual subscription renewal, new Google Play Store purchase, YouTube Premium monthly subscription renewal, and Netflix monthly subscription payment.

FNB eBucks CEO Johan Moolman told MyBroadband that instances where eBucks accounts ran into the negative were incredibly rare.

“This would be due to source data changes from merchants or partners,” he stated.

Moolman explained the Google Play subscription renewal was not picked up because the transaction description from Google had been “Google Guitar”.

This highlighted one of the significant challenges for the eBucks team — updating the system to account for source data changing as merchants altered transaction labels.

Moolman also explained that eBucks allocation had always been calculated on a transaction’s post-date.

“Unfortunately, we do not control when merchants bank these transactions,” Moolman said.

“We always want to put customers in the correct financial position so that we can either credit or debit accounts to ensure that they get what is due to them.”

“We further confirm that no interest is charged, and again, this happens very seldomly.”

Now read: FNB eBucks problems return — Check your fuel spend

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