Buchibrand Blog

UNITED BANK for AFRICA (UBA) has proven to be the best bank in Nigeria in terms of service and customer relationship. I had a little issue with my account lately and the way the issue was handled and quickly resolved baffled me. I noticed few debit on my account so i thought it was unusual and decided to contact the bank, but to my greatest surprise calls started coming in from the bank and before i knew it, everything was resolved and i can tell you that i am very happy with the UBAGroup.

WHAT ACTAULLY HAPPENED?

I got 4 debit alert on my account within a space of 4 days and all read "CARD MAINTENANCE". The first debit was for NOVEMBER, the second was for MAY, the third was DECEMBER and the last said for AUGUST, so i got angry that why should my account be debited in that manner. Seriously i thought it was multiples charges, so i contacted them via Facebook and Twitter and just after few hours i got a call from a UBAGROUP staff, he told me that i will receive another call also from their Executive Director and few minutes later the call came in and he took his time to explain everything to me and i must confess i was so impressed.

WAS IT ACTUALLY MULTIPLES CHARGES?

The answer is simply "NO".
HOW? It was actually a CBN authorized charge; it is called MONTHLY CARD MAINTENANCE CHARGES and it is charged by all banks in Nigeria. CBN came up with a policy that bank should charge all card users annually the sum of N600, but i think the policy was later modified and banks were instructed to carryout the charges on monthly basis so that a customer will not be charged for the months he/she decide not to use the card for any transaction. This means that your bank is supposed to debit you N50 (plus VAT) monthly for CARD MAINTENANCE.


SO WHAT LED TO THE CHARGES OCCURRING SIMULTANEOUSLY?

It was as a result of system failure, the system was supposed to debit every customer appropriately but it was observed that the system malfunctioned at  some point. The system had failed to debit some customers at a particular month, and the bank needed to  correct those anomalies by effecting charges on those account for the months not charged for. So that was the reason why you probably got multiple debit alert.

HOW CAN I BE SURE THAT IT WAS NOT MULTIPLE DEBIT?

If you don't believe what i stated above, or you just want to be very sure you have not been charged for same purpose more than once. I will advice you visit your bank branch or any branch of UBA nearest to you. You may also want to request your account statement. You can also contact UBA on their website (Use the Live Chat app to interact with a customer care representative), Facebook or Tweet them @UBAGroup.

IS UBAGROUP CUSTOMER FRIENDLY?

YES! 100% customer friendly and i must confess they are the very best when it comes to customer friendliness. UBA respects her customers, reason being that despite the fact that i am not one of their big customer they deemed it fit to call me and even beg me not to be angry with the bank. They could have decided to ignore me since the charges were legitimate.

BONUS: do you know that UBA refunded me all the debit on my account? I mean i got back all the CBN authorized charges effected on my account, as a sign of a perfect customer relationship.

Please if you are having any issue with your account with UBA or you got few debit alerts lately and you are not sure what it was meant for, or you are probably having the feeling that you have been charged wrongly, please follow the steps listed above or drop a comment below. I will direct it to the appropriate quarters and you will be responded to.

Please note: their could be other reasons for multiples charges alert, you really need to contact the bank for clarification and to have all issue resolves.

Now i can boldly tell you that truly #UBACares