Even active customers risk being stuck.
A requirement that could easily be overlooked – it is explained in a footnote of its myriad earn rules that run close to 7 000 words – may see FNB customers participating in its eBucks rewards programme stranded at reward Level 3, regardless of any other actions they take during the month.
The programme incentivises account holders through various ‘behaviour change’ actions that reward them with points that can be used to earn various levels of eBucks.
Over a decade ago, it used the programme to incentivise the uptake of its award-winning FNB app; it was among the first of the major banks in the country to launch one.
Recently, it has been pushing its insurance products, offering a significant number of reward points for taking them up.
Tougher than ever to reach Level 5
Reaching Level 5 equates to rewards for customers of up to 15% back in eBucks at Clicks and Spar, 20% at Pick n Pay (or 30% via the on-demand delivery service Pick n Pay asap!), between 15% and 60% for the bank’s own products, and as much as R8 per litre for fuel purchases at Engen.
It announced some sudden changes in October, which were implemented in November – a strange decision given that changes have historically only been made annually from July.
This was the first year where two rounds of material changes occurred in under six months.
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The November changes made it tougher than ever to reach Level 5 on its various FNB Private accounts (Premier, Private Clients, and Private Wealth).
However, in its ‘income deposits’ requirement, which can see account holders earn a substantial amount of reward points (2 000 for Premier, 2 500 for Private Clients, and 3 000 for Private Wealth), there are additional criteria alongside the ‘core’ one.
These are among the highest number of reward points one can earn for a behaviour in the programme.
For income, customers need to have regular deposits into their accounts (effectively, a salary) of R16 500 (Premier) or R32 500 (Private Clients and Private Wealth) in order to get these points.
It introduced an ‘average’ rule a number of years ago for those with irregular income, like entrepreneurs.
The rule to watch out for …
To get these reward points, one needs to achieve this income threshold and also “initiate” at least 10 debit transactions on your account per month.
If one doesn’t achieve this, FNB says “you will be restricted to a maximum of reward Level 3”.
This is regardless of the points achieved on other behaviours across savings, investments, offshore banking, borrowing, insurance, family, FNB Connect, and digital banking (including card behaviour).
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So one may find a situation where an account holder holds the ‘requisite’ number of other products with the bank and performs certain behaviours to get to Level 4 or Level 5 (the latter needs 10 000, 11 500 and 13 500 reward points on the three accounts respectively), but remain ‘stuck’ on Level 3.
This so-called “main banked” criteria requires a client to perform at least 10 debit transactions (on any of these ‘Private’ accounts), covering cash withdrawals (including cardless ones), debit card purchases, electronic and manual payments, eWallet and money transfers, internal and external debit orders, prepaid purchases (airtime, electricity) and Lotto purchases.
These transactions exclude “account fees and interest charges” as well as “transfers, cash deposits … and convenience and value-added services”.
What’s interesting is that the 10-transaction threshold is consistent across all three of these accounts – it does not scale up like other requirements do.
In November, eBucks reduced the number of rewards level points earned for what could be deemed easily achievable behaviours.
The three changes affected engagement with the nav»money section of the app, interaction with the ‘Track my rewards’ screen under the eBucks tab, and ensuring that in-store and online spending is primarily via a virtual card (in other words, through a platform like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay or Garmin Pay).
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Before the change, these netted customers a total of 3 500 rewards level points. From November, only a maximum of 1 000 points can be earned for achieving these.
Simultaneously, it increased the caps on reward level points that could be earned from holding its insurance products.
It also changed when eBucks would be allocated to members. This now happens on the 15th of each month, whereas previously they were allocated between the 10th and 13th of each month for the prior month (depending on weekends and public holidays).
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.