Eating humble pie

There is some time yet to wait for a deliberation from Saambou`s curator, which, although no consolation for Saambou clients in general, gave me some time to ponder the vagaries of the banking industry in the UK.

I`ve been mildly horrified at the state of banking services on offer on this island.

Basheera Khan, London contributor, ITWeb

Let me say upfront, the pickings are far from slim. Not only does one have the option of banking with British banking stalwarts, there are imports such as HSBC and Citibank to consider, the financial services on offer by the major grocery chains such as Tesco and Sainsbury`s, and a handful of online banks backed by traditional players too.

Quantity does not necessarily equal quality though, if anything is to be read from the multifarious additional players flogging, by turns, debt reduction and personal loan services.

It seems a common thread that the financial services industry here has done its best to couch its terms and conditions in complex turns of phrase, and frequently advertise complicated special offers that sound too good to be true - and often to the galling disappointment of customers - this proves to be the case.

In what might prove to set a precedent, one customer who bought a mortgage offering from Nationwide on the promise of a discounted rate for first time borrowers later found that the mortgage provider had introduced a BMR, or a base mortgage rate which was lower than the SVR, or standard variable rate, on which his mortgage repayments were based, even though his contract stipulated that he would never have to pay more than the lowest industry rate. (With all these TLAs, I almost feel like I`m writing about the IT industry!)

When his complaints to Nationwide were largely ignored, the then irate customer appealed to the financial ombudsman. The long and the short of it is that Nationwide took out a full page advertisement in yesterday`s The Sunday Times, announcing "it`s decision" to have just one variable mortgage rate. It`s somewhat amusing to witness the effort it went to in order to pass the action off as something other than a slap on the wrist from an industry authority.

Back to the banking bit. I`ve been mildly horrified at the state of banking services on offer on this island. I mean, I`d always heard that this was the case, but I`d never truly comprehended quite how far advanced South African banking systems are in comparison.

I had steeled myself for shoddy online banking when it came to the traditional players, and less than satisfactory customer service, though in all fairness, I`d always believed I was getting that from Standard Bank. Then I learned the awful truth - that most ATMs here are good for little more than dispensing cash and balances. Account management, deposit-taking and cheque issuing are, to my knowledge, all higher grade banking tasks that are still performed within one`s branch, where of course one has to appear, I shudder to say, in person.

So it is with a new sense of humility that I say: I take it back, Standard Bank, all is forgiven. That is, until I`m on South African soil again, of course.