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.<\/p>\n
One such service is NotifyMe from ABSA, a tool to manage your accounts by having an SMS transaction history.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
NotifyMe subscribers can also request account balances, mini statements and purchase airtime.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
While buying airtime is free, any other notification or transaction is charged at 48c per SMS or e-mail.<\/p>\n
The 48c per e-mail does not go down well with some ABSA clients, including well known Internet professional Matthew Buckland<\/a> 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!”.<\/p>\n 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:<\/p>\n “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<\/a>, Head: Mobile and Messaging, Absa Digital.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n