{"id":549020,"date":"2006-06-01T12:23:08","date_gmt":"2006-06-01T12:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/549020-surge-in-cell-banking-usage.html"},"modified":"2006-06-01T12:23:08","modified_gmt":"2006-06-01T12:23:08","slug":"surge-in-cell-banking-usage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/549020-surge-in-cell-banking-usage.html","title":{"rendered":"Surge in cell banking usage"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the course of April 2006 Absa’s cellphone banking customers performed around 200,000 financial transactions estimated at R210m. <\/font><\/p>\n

The most popular financial transactions are prepaid top-ups for cellphone airtime, inter-account transfers and payments. <\/font><\/p>\n

"What this tells us is that cellphone banking is being used as a convenient cousin to Internet Banking," says Christo Vrey, Absa General Manager: Digital Channels. <\/font><\/p>\n

"When people don’t have access to electricity or are just not close to an Internet connection, and would rather not use a public facility such as an Internet caf\u00e9 because of the risks, they are turning to cellphone banking." <\/font><\/p>\n

What has also impacted on customer growth is Absa’s internet based cellphone banking – introduced to the market in March 2006 as an alternative to the traditional SMS-based cellphone banking. <\/font><\/p>\n

"Internet based cellphone banking is particularly easy for those who are used to internet banking because the layout is very similar to Internet banking," says Vrey. <\/font><\/p>\n

Other advantages include: <\/font><\/p>\n