Manna from Heaven - Wealthdesign's 30% interest

Dear Mike Brown Chief Executive of Nedbank,

         As a well known bank watcher I thought I would tip you off about something that could save your bank a fortune in advertising costs. And as your bank is one of the largest in South Africa’s this could mean a great deal of money.

         I have just seen your bank’s half page advert in the Sunday Times in your green corporate colours. Ads like this in a paper with some 3-million readers don’t come cheap.

So why waste the money if you are going to be shown up in the same paper?

         What I’m talking about is the Nedbank JustInvest Deposit account that you were bragging about. You told the paper’s readers that this pays A great rate of up 5.25% pa. 

       But on the front of that very same edition there was another offer that made your measly 5.25% interest appear to be such insignificant chicken feed as to not be worth considering.

         I don’t know if you are aware of it, but if this takes off your bank and all the other recognised ones as well as our Government’s Retail Bonds might as well shut up shop because they will not be able to compete.

So when you are next at the club can you pass this on to your fellow bankers at First National, Absa, Standard and any others I haven’t thought of? 

         And if you have any gold or diamond mining buddies like the Oppenheimers tell them to start filling in the holes because those too will be obsolete.

         The Sunday Times readers were told they could enjoy a lifestyle not normally associated with the ownership of a traditional business venture or franchise.

        Here’s the bonanza that you won’t get anywhere else in the world.

        A crowd calling themselves Wealthdesign are offering 30% fixed returns on 1^st R1m & 19% on further capital. The business is described as a low risk, effortless one in the financial industry. But on it’s website it is said to be essentially risk free. So take your pick.

The registration fee for this kind of investment is R50 000.

        If you don’t happen to have such big bucks there is the Cambist scheme which offers a 24% annual return on amounts of R1 000 or more.

Talk about manna from Heaven.

         Best of all you don’t need premises, equipment, staff, office hours, experience, skills or marketing to cash in. 

         It’s too unbelievable for words.

         If only the Governments of Greece, Italy, Spain etc would realise that they don’t have to go begging for bail outs. With interest rates in Europe at nearly nothing all they have to do is put all their country’s money in South Africa and abracadabra their financial woes will be solved. 

         The Wealthdesign’s magic comes under Oneserv, a division of the Pretoria based Onesys Group that was established 18 years ago and now consists of 11 companies.

Oneserv we are told was established to take advantage of the lucrative profits being made in the R60-billion a year South African short term loan market.

         SA Multiloan another company in the group has 175 short term loan outlets with a turnover of more than R200-million a month. And the Group needs investors because it hasn’t got enough of its own money to keep up with the demand.

       They tell us that the people’s African National Congress Government has allowed credit providers to charge between 30% and 60% on short term unsecured loans.

So the less fortunate are being screwed into the ground for the benefit of the rich.

        Oh! I forgot that’s how our tried and trusted capitalism works.

         In the happy picture is Amelda Coombe, an Oneserv credit provider who claims, From the comfort of my own home I earn a guaranteed 30% per annum on capital invested in my business.

         It didn’t matter that she had no financial knowledge because she was given all the necessary financial training.

         As a financial ignoramus perhaps you can answer this for me Mike?  If a card castle is founded on people in the lower income groups, aren’t they more likely to lose their jobs in an economic downturn than those higher up the ladder?

If this is the case can anybody legitimate say that money put into the building of such a castle is risk free?  And if there is no security for the loans isn’t  this risky with a capital R?

         I’m just asking.

         My last question is this. If this short term loan business makes so much money why isn’t your bank in it so that you can offer everybody 30% instead of that ridiculously low 5.25%?

         Anyway Mike I’m sure you’ll appreciate that I’m only trying to help because the last thing we want is to have our entire banking system struggling to survive because nobody wants to give it any money.

         Of course the worst case scenario would be if there was no money to pay the huge performance bonuses you and the rest of the banking top brass get year after year, regardless of whether or not there has been any performance.

         Yours sincerely,

         Jon, who is too poor to qualify even for a short term loan. 

Buy my book ‘Where have all the children gone?’ on Amazon Kindle  It’s a thriller with an underlying love story that defied generations of Afikaner/English prejudice.