Bank customers in Abuja have insisted that they will opt for electronic mail alerts from their banks to cut costs and reduce charges on their accounts.
Some of them who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday said they would deactivate the Short Message Services transaction alert linked to their accounts.
Mrs Dorathy Azinge, a customer of GTCO, described the increase in SMS charges as exploitative.
Azinge said that in spite of various transaction charges debited from her bank account on a daily basis, the bank still increased SMS charges.
This move of increasing SMS charges is very exploitative even though they cited telecommunication charge.
”What about all the numerous unwarranted debits that I get from my account, and they are using telecommunication increase as yardstick to increase theirs.
”GT will remove different charges from my account until they give me minus balance,” she said.
Another customer, Ms Elizabeth Abu, said she would visit her bank to opt for her transaction alerts to be sent to only her e-mail address.
Abu who complained about the reduction in her capitalised interest on her account, said the numerous debits were becoming frustrating.
“It does not make sense for the bank to charge me for a transaction I did and also charge me for the alert they sent.
“It means that customers are the ones paying heavily for all these services.
” These charges are reflecting on the profits declared by these banks, and we are the ones paying for this,” she said.
Mr Clement Arubu, a customer with First HoldCo Plc, said he received various transaction debit alerts from his bank totalling N1, 050 monthly.
Arubu said the debits were huge, especially when calculated between 10,000 customers of the bank.
“Most customers receive these alerts and neglect them because to them, the money is small but when you debit the same money from about 10,000 customers then, you can be sure that the money is huge,” he said.
Mrs Catherine Itoha,, said a bank had yet to reverse over N20,000 debited from her account through various failed Point of Sale transaction since about 11 months.
Itoha urged some banks and their staff to adopt principles of fair practice in handling their customers.
” Customers are the reason why banks are in existence so, we deserve to be treated fairly.
GTB debited me in about four different transactions that I did but up till now, they did not reverse any of these monies.
”I visited the bank, filled forms, spoke to their staff personally but still the issue was not resolved since last year.
”If this money did not go to a staff, it means it is part of their profit,” she alleged.
