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.      

Standard Bank - What standard?

Dear Jacko Mareee, Chief Executive of Standard Bank,

          I can’t understand how your bank was voted No1 for service in the Banking Category Orange Index Awards, whatever they are, because all I got from this so called champion of service excellence of yours was a LEMON.

          If my experience is the yardstick the Standard you set is nothing to brag about. I’m sure you wouldn’t want it included in those whole page, newspaper advertisements you have been running since you won the Award.

          It’s more important to tell the world how all of us wear takkies on pay day so we can serve you faster. Well the service I got was takkie and it certainly didn’t involve speedy service because I’m still waiting after nearly three years.

          As I’ve already told you I have been trying to get your bank to stop sending vehicle finance statements and threatening letters of demand for Mr X to our address. This has been going on ever since my wife and I moved into our present house.

          The previous owner was not Mr X and from what I could establish he lived here five or six years ago. Yet in spite of the fact that your bank has been told this repeatedly and has promised to rectify the situation on numerous occasions the letters keep coming.

          My concern is that if judgment is taken against him we could have the Sheriff coming to our house to take our possessions. And I’ve heard of scary stories of what can happen if nobody’s at home to correct a mistake when the Sheriff arrives.

          I thought the problem had been finally solved a few months ago when your Western Cape Regional Director, Johan van Wyk undertook via his PA Corinda Strick, to stop the letters being sent to us. How wrong I was because it seems that this is of such mammoth proportions that one of your directors can’t solve it.

   

           

         And it’s even too big for you to handle.         

       


       The statements keep coming. And immediately after I had emailed you things got uglier than ever.     

          The latest is a letter marked URGENT on the one corner. It threatens him with legal action unless he pays the significant overdue amount. It also said that unless he paid adverse information regarding your payment performance will be reported to the National Credit Bureaux and could affect your ability to obtain credit in future.

          Instead of replying to the email I sent to your personal email address the buck was passed to Yasmin Bhoola, your Manager:  Executive & Escalated Complaints, Office of the Chief Executive.  Some title that.

          Yasmin told me in an email that the bank contacted Mr X and established that he is overseas.  She went on to say that according to the National Credit Act the bank couldn’t change the man’s address without his permission. Yet it contacted him????

          She added, We have been advised that he will be back in the country in April and we will then address the issue with him.

          A spokesperson for the National Credit Regulator told me that in the circumstances the Bank was quite entitled to change the man’s address without his permission. So who is right Jacko?

          And if your bank is No 1 for service why has it taken something like three years for it to come up with this excuse for not changing the address?

          Also if efficiency is the buzz word at Standard wouldn’t you want to have an up to date record of the addresses of people who owe you money. This is especially so if they have a vehicle in which your bank has an interest.

          What’s the point in telling Mr X, in your latest threatening letter, that We would like to remind you of your legal obligation to ensure that your asset remains comprehensively insured at all times if the letter is sent to the wrong address and your bank has been repeatedly told about this?

          Also Jacko hasn’t it occurred to anyone in your bank that it is decidedly odd that the gentleman in this case should not bother to tell you of his new address five years or more after he left the one he gave when he had his car financed by you?

          In recent months I have had reason to send complaints to the personal emails addresses of the Big Bosses of  all South Africa’s major banks, Nedbank, Absa, First National and now Standard. And only one of them, Michael Jordaan at FNB had the courtesy and the good public relations savvy to reply directly to me.

          So I thought you would be interested to know that he holds regular night classes for bank chief executives and other top brass in this sector, but so far the attendance has been depressingly poor.

          Yours hopefully,

          Jon, a Consumer Watchdog you can bank on.

PS. If our address gets much more tainted perhaps we should change it and you can go on sending the bank’s threats to an address where the delinquent Mr X will never see them. And that's exactly what you are still doing nearly two months after I first contacted you.

Buy my book 'Where have all the children gone?' on Amazon.com  It's a thriller with an underlying love story that defied generations of prejudice.