ABSA NotifyMe: 48c per e-mail
Banking fraud is a big problem in South Africa, and all South African banks are constantly looking at ways to protect their users against fraudulent activities in their accounts.
One such service is NotifyMe from ABSA, a tool to manage your accounts by having an SMS transaction history.
Each time a transaction takes place on your account Absa will notify you with an SMS or e-mail containing transaction information and your account balance via e-mail or SMS.
NotifyMe subscribers can also request account balances, mini statements and purchase airtime.
However, this service comes at a cost. Unless a subscriber selects a ‘Management Fee package’ where the charges will be included in the bundled service, notices are billed for per message.
While buying airtime is free, any other notification or transaction is charged at 48c per SMS or e-mail.
The 48c per e-mail does not go down well with some ABSA clients, including well known Internet professional Matthew Buckland which said on Twitter “Am quite dumbstruck that ABSA charges 48c PER EMAIL on their “NotifyMe” service. SMS I understand, but e-mail? Great margins!”.
ABSA was asked why they charge the same price for an SMS (which costs them a certain amount) and an e-mail, which is essentially free. The company did not answer this question in its response to MyBroadband. Instead ABSA provided the following bland marketing response:
“NotifyMe is a value added notification service that offers customers a choice of two delivery channels – SMS and e-mail. The intention is to keep the customer value proposition of control and convenience, both simple and consistent,” said Adrian Vermooten, Head: Mobile and Messaging, Absa Digital.
“Over 99% of all customers registered for NotifyMe have opted for SMS delivery as the value proposition is certainly real-time instant alerts of account activity. Absa customers are able to customise NotifyMe thereby configuring factors such as what transactions trigger a notification, on what channels, at what time of day and for what minimum transaction value. Our customers are also able to set up one or more recipients.”
It is therefore still unclear why ABSA would charge 48c for e-mail notifications when the cost to send an e-mail is negligible. The profit margin for e-mails, as Buckland pointed out, may be a bit exorbitant.
Do you feel crooked when charged 48c for an e-mail notification by ABSA? << Share your thoughts on the MyBroadband forum.
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