SA banking set for smart technology

[Dave A]

That has got to be a nightmare. I know from my travels you are so right about going with multiple options for accessing funds.

Travellers cheques are not accepted in many hotels, one has to cash them at a bank, and there are restrictions unless one goes to the specific office ie. American Express.

I was a bit surprised to see that. My experience is that all hotels I've been to will accept travellers cheques and cash them for no handling charges, although they'll have a limit as to how much they'll cash per day - generally determined by the level of glitz of the establishment

Just look for the biggest hotel at a convention centre for best results

The other option is money changing booths which seem to be all over the place wherever I've been; shopping malls, airports, anything remotely touristy and including flea markets. The down side is they'll have a handling fee, somewhere between 3 & 5% depending on the amount and whether you are prepared to haggle a bit. But for all that, way cheaper than getting yourself to an office of the travellers cheque issuer. As pointed out by Yvonne, I've yet to find one conveniently located.

On the credit card front - don't rely on one card. I've yet to have a problem with Mastercard and Visa, but have had issues with American Express and Diners Club at times. I vaguely suspect they do work most places, but might have a different merchant fee structure perhaps, resulting in a "We don't take Diners Club - have you got anything else" response. But it's kinda hard to push the subject - way easier to just reach for another card.

When drawing cash on a credit card in the USA, remember the pin is just the first 4 numbers of your SA pin.

*For Yvonne - I recall there is a special number for Standard Bank for international travellers to call in case of just this sort of emergency. I'll scratch through my "emergency travel information pack" I cart around with me when traveling (just as soon as I can find it ). I have actually had to use it once in the past and they proved quite helpful.

**A note on Diners Club - I've actually had that happen to a friend of mine - and American Express too (which was a real surprise given it was the USA!). But I believe Diners Club has hooked up with Maestro which should have solved that problem nowadays.

[Yvonne]

I am currently in the U.S.A. for a period of three months.

My finances were to be handled as follows: Cash in credit card, draw and use card in the U.S.A.
Plus, Second bank - taking precautions - cash in debit card. (Thank heavens I made sure I had a backup plan!)

When I tried to use my Standard card (Which is linked to our current account) it was "denied", tried a second time, same result.

The bank account is in my husbands name and is a joint account - and we both have credit cards.
My husband has no problem with his own card.
My husband went into the bank in South Africa and this is the reason.

The bank "discovered" that they had issued two credit cards in my name! -I have only one, and had not received any notification of there being a second card to be collected! so no warning of a potential problem!

The bank then CANCELLED both credit cards as a security measure!
Did the bank make any attempt to contact us? - not at all.

Bank clerk was completely unresponsive to the resulting problems of my being unable to obtain finance from our account.

A further card "might" be ready by the 12th December when my husband leaves to join me in the U.S.A. - any bets?

Guaranteed the bank will either not have the card available or will not permit my husband to sign for the card on my behalf, or even issue another two replacement cards and have to cancel again!

We are constantly being encouraged to make use of Master Card Internationally, yet we have no guarantee that we will be able to draw on our own money when required.

I am really angry, as this is my own money, banked specifically so I could draw on it, I am not "borrowing" on my credit card.

I feel overwhelmed by the attitude of the bank and the "could not care less" attitude.

Will better banking technology make any difference when such "stupid" errors occur?

The reason I have posted this is to suggest that when travelling, you need a backup plan, do not rely solely on credit cards.

Travellers cheques are not accepted in many hotels, one has to cash them at a bank, and there are restrictions unless one goes to the specific office ie. American Express.
This can sometimes take a good part of the day just trying to locate their offices, the most convenient manner is to make use of a debit card.

Yvonne

[Graeme]

Standard Bank are holding the actual cheque. The 'photocopy I was shown was done by the bank and looked like, well, a valid cheque.

[Dave A]

It would be quite handy to post a copy of something like that here - with sensitive account information blacked out, of course.

[Graeme]

More about "washing" cheques

I mentioned the washing cheques business whilst having lunch at the home of friends today. Our host got up from the table and returned with a photocopy of a cheque crossed "not transferable" which he had sent to Edgars (for R100) and which had been intercepted, the payee changed to an african name, the amount changed to R3000 odd and accepted by Standard Bank. In due course the Bank restored the account balance to what it should have been. Unfortunately the photostat could not show how well the washing process had worked. Looked fine on the photostat. The original crossing was still there so I don't know how the crook got away with it.

[Dave A]

I'm struggling to give the story credence. As long as you are using a decent ink pen, it certainly should take some pretty special treatment to pull off, I'd think.

The bigger concern to my mind is that this sort of fraud is being associated with posted cheques. This does not say much for the integrity of our postal service.

Recently I've had two cases of registered items that were posted to be and returned to sender - without me ever receiving notification that these registered items had arrived! I was not a happy trooper.

[Graeme]

“Washing” Cheques

The following appeared in the Natal Mercury the other day:

“Never send cheques in the mail to pay your accounts, as these can fall into the wrong hands and be “washed” by criminal syndicates who alter the amount and payee before presenting the cheque to the bank for payment”.

I read this with disbelief, but a few days later my wife asked a teller at FNB about it and she confirmed what was in the paper. Well goodness me - washing and altering cheques successfully, notwithstanding all the clever anti-fraud measures taken by the printers and the banks.

But really, can it be true? I would not wish to seem a subscriber to conspiracy theories, but if you were a bank, and very keen to reduce your overheads by encouraging on-line banking etc, might not putting a few stories about so as to make people nervous about sending cheques in the post be a good place to start?

Is the article for real?

[Dave A]

We tracked some of the reports on that commission in this thread.

Not much seems to have happened since. But I suppose there will be a report sometime.

[Snoopy_inc]

The Competition Commission released the names of the panel that will conduct an investigation into banking charges and access to the national payment system.

The panel will be chaired by Thabani Jali, with Oupa Bodibe, Mrs Hixonia Nyasulu and Rob Petersen SC as the other members of the panel.
Click here!


The commission said that the panel would shortly issue guidelines and initial questionnaires for the assistance of those wishing or willing to submit relevant information to the inquiry.

Public hearings were also expected to be held. - I-Net Bridge

Article from business report

This article was from August 4, 2006

[Snoopy_inc]

Candy its not pannicky unless they start saying one has to have a chip imbedded into their body... until such time the christians are safe

But saying this its tru... what can we do to stop banks from doing what they will.
I will post shorley a snippet out of wellinformed.co.za for you to read about this

[Candy Bouwer]

There are a lot of schools of thought out there and i know there is resistant because the church and religion is condemning it as a move to "end times". People are scared and this won't happen over night. The idea of Central monetary control sends panic to the Christian or religious communities.

[Dave A]

If we don't start pulling tgether as consumers of their services, we're never going to get it stopped. The cash deposit fee is ridiculous, for starters. And an annual card fee for credit cards...

[Snoopy_inc]

Our problems with banks are not the Infrastructure they have but more how they are regulated / controlled.

We are one of the only countries in the world that pays to put money into our banks...... its insane!

[duncan drennan]

I actually raised a question as to why this hasn't happened yet on The Forum last year, http://www.theforumsa.co.za/forums/showthread.php?t=578.

Hope that it happens soon, should reduce fraud significantly

[Dave A]

South Africa's four big banks are to roll out microchip-embedded smart cards this year in a bid to fight fraud and grow a cashless society - encouraging consumers to make low-fee debit card payments for small purchases.

The country is the first outside Europe - which launched the technology over the past three years - to adopt the smart cards and among the "second wave" of countries, including Australia and New Zealand, to do so.

North American consumers have resisted the smart card as low fraud levels and high card volumes make the conversion expensive and unattractive.

The new cards will contain an "intelligent" microchip that, by 2010, will allow consumers to download movie and sports events tickets from the Internet, pay for public transport and make small purchases at the cost of a few cents. They will offer superior security facilities for Internet transactions.
read the fuull story from IOL here