Your Bank Might Be Defrauding You?

Hello,

A recent (Guardian July 20, 2005) advertorial  by MCL Solutions Limited claims that Nigerian banks, in a desperate attempt to stay afloat, may be defrauding their customers by levying various excess charges.  They claim to have recovered sums as large as 560 million naira on behalf of their clients.

According to the advertorial, your bank may be defrauding you in one of the following ways:

• Calculation of Interest (charges payable to the bank) at an un-agreed rate
• Calculation of COT on funds reversal, returned cheque entry, transfer of money within the same bank, and other miscellanous charges which they are not supposed to charge COT on?
• Calculation of COT (Commission on Turnover) at a rate higher than your agreement with the bank.
• Calculation of interest on normal overdraft at the rate that's supposed to be used for excess overdraft.
• Backdating of transaction dates (e.g. overdraft due date) to extract more charges from the account holder.
• Allowing cheques from one account holder to hit her account as well as yours ( ).

I guess this means we should take the time to double-check our bank charges to make sure we're not being defrauded!  Companies, especially, should be vigilant enough to do this since they could potentially lose millions.  The MCL people (email) want us to use their "banker software" for this purpose, though it can definitely be done with a spreadsheet or manual calculator.

Have you had any experience that confirms or contradicts the information contained in this advertorial?  Do you have any additional information that might enlighten us?  Please feel free to share what you have with the rest of us.

Thanks.

So what can we do to protect ourselves?

buhahha some people are funny sha. don't tell me you are taking that post too seriously. Nigeria is not that bad. They are talking about Banks in general in Nigeria i suppose.

I was actually a victim to bank fraud. I deposited some amount of money in a savings account with STB and in the course of running my depositing and withdrawals i discivered that i had lost 1000naira. I don't even no if they have a customer care service to report my situation to. But even if they do, i think there is very little they can do to help because na all of them wey dey the bank get hand for the "picking". i wonder how many innocent nigerians have been defrauded like i am.

I went to intercontinental few days ago to claim money my friend send to his family through western union .He used my name to send the money.But something funny happened at the bank,after i have filled the whole form and they paid me the money in dollar ,but it remains like about seven dollar they will balance me,i kept quite hoping that they didn't have all the money in dollar and they are going to balance me the remaining one in naira,but to my greatest suprise ,i was there waiting for them to come and give me the balance ,but the guy was busy doing another thing,when i asked him hey man my money is not complete ,like in chorus all the bank worker in that section raised their voice in one uniform and told me why I'm disturbing them .it was then that i raised my voice and told them to go to hell and ask the guy to come and give me the balance at once.He gave it to me with grudge.Some of them are smart banker .who would want to reap one off his/her hard earned money.

seun and what makes u feel the management is not aware. i went to STB branch in owerri, i had a problem with a staff who refused to attend to me because i rebuked him for being rude to an elderly person. i took the issue up withthe floor manager because i was told the branch manager was not on seat. and the f.m tells me he would look into it that he is busy. and went back to his table, while i who wanted to conduct my business was to embarassed because i had expected the f.m to follow me back to the cashier and rebuke him. i had to walk out of the bank
buti closed my account the next day

I opened a DISA Plus account with a new branch of Diamond Bank here in Abuja in September, and there and then applied for a cheque book and an ATM card, for which they deducted the fees immediately.  It took me over a month to get my cheque book and ATM card, after several visits to the bank (with the current expensive means of transportation in Abuja).  Now, for the past two (2) months I have been visiting the bank, yet I have not been issued the PIN number for my ATM card. . . Phew!

Consequently, my plan now is to clear the money in the account and use it for Christmas shopping!

Our nigerian bankers lack manners; they feel exploited by their various bank managment and take it out on the clients. The banks themselves have no feedback or correction mechanism. I use the word "NO" because it simply does not work. Infact, most organisations don't understand such terms as helpline, client support or customer loyalty. They go about the place advertising all types of fantastic services they don't intend to render in the next 24 months. Its a pity but it just goes to show the level of general madness in this our country.

It is a fact that many banks defraud their unsuspecting customers. Just think about it "one naira here, one naira there will end up making a mighty One Million Naira"
How many of us, really care to calculate and ensure that we have not been overcharged with anything below 50naira. Often times, we stop cross-checking once we are certain that the balance given to us is correct to the nearest 1,000. And therein lies the trick. A bank having over One Million Accounts, can make several millions a month just by fraudulently overcharging extra 5naira, 10naira e.t.c. As long as the amount is not up to what can buy a bottle of Maltina, many of us cannot be bothered.
Not once, not twice I've caught my bankers doing this funny stuff. When I insist on the "error" being corrected, the bank officer grudgingly corrects it, but not without nicknaming me "bean counter"
At such time, I just wonder, what happens to the big Onitsha merchants and the Alaba traders, who don't have time for such perusal of bank statements. They must be contributing unwittingly to someone's purse.

Hello all, this happened to me just yesterday at UBA (former STB). I was charged N5/N1000 for paying into my own account at another branch! It happened to be somebody's money which I was just keeping for him and I was charged same for withdrawing it (from the same branch I paid into), I ended up losing N9000.

What manner of bank charges you for paying into a savings account?
Isnt there some regulatory body that we can report these sharp practices to for redress?
So much for reforms in the banking sector!

Na wa o, your were charged for saving your own money lol craze dey worry craze

hey who uses uba/stb. since july they brought up this funny policy of less than 5k they charge u 55 bucks. so if u r abroke ass student like me run from that bank becuase if u r not witdrawing from u home branch every transaction will cost u bout 200 bucks.
PLEASE CBN DO SOMETHING. can't they make a special undergraduate account? ciao


ramblings of a disillusioned youth.

Big shame!

very very discouraging, the stories that I am reading about Nigerian banks. What alternatives exist for people to save money, or should we revert back to our forefather's way of burying money on the ground? There are some Nigerians back here, who maintained an account back home. One of them had a woeful experience, when the bank shut down.

nigerian banks are no exception my people. Even in UK customers are laden with myriads of unfair bank charges. How else can you explain the mega billion pounds profit of the likes of barclays and royal bank of scotland etc.

i have since resolved that i'll dig a hole in my backyard and keep my money there , just like Fela Anikulapo did. i suggest any disgruntled  customer to follow suit. shikena