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Online Share Trading

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Tax Free Savings Accounts and Standard Bank - um FAIL!!!

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Blik2
Contributor

Let me begin by stating up-front, I have been a solid believer, for the past 17 years, in Standard Bank's ability to deliver a decent Online Share Trading Platform.  I also opened a TFSA with SBK Online Trading as soon as allowed.  So that's my first disclosure.   But.....but!    When it comes to Standard Bank belatedly trying to link my two daughters TFSA accounts to mine (so I can, gasp gosh, manage them), well, Standard Bank, their Online Division, my local branch and the good fellas at Online Trading, make both my local Traffic Department and local Home Affairs Office both seem bureaucratically amateurish by comparison.  Shoooooweeeee.  I have been bumped from pillar to post, from branch to call centre for the better part of two days……and…..and!  I am not counting the issues I had in 2017 with the accounts and my local branch.

  • My local branch seems not to believe there is an actual TFSA product offered by SBK....seriously, I get raised eyebrows, each time I query this.....you know, just like Trevor Noah does;
  • Online Banking told me on the phone that my two daughters did not, I repeat did not have TFSA accounts with SBK, even though I have the 2017 IT3(s) for each account for two years contributions for each sitting on my desk in front of me;
  • I cannot set up an Online Banking account for either, since they are too young to have e-mails. The old Online Banking site – where, I will have you – you could see their respective TFSA accounts is no longer available…..But get this, on the old site, since 2016 at leasst, there was no way to pay / transfer their annual allocation into the TFSA account so that we can buy ETFs…….(second disclosure – I have opened Allan Gray TFSA accounts for them now as well)……The best I can do is link them to my dashboard (WTF is a dashboard anyway for anyone old school…lol).  An aside on this, is one person from the Online Banking call centre, told me with deep conviction, that the only way to do this is set up their own Online Banking profile – and while they knew my daughters are 3 and 5 respectively, were obviously not aware that for a banking profile, you need an e-mail.  And who the heck gives out e-mails to kids…….(Ok I could have done a fake one…..but I’d rather not try bull**bleep**e the system).

After much time on the phone and inside my local, I now have been told I need to send Online Trading a message asking them to link their accounts to my Online Trading Account.  Apparently then, I will be able to link them to my Online Banking Dashboard…….hmmm…..and then, maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to manage their TFSA accounts.  We will see in a few days.

 

I seriously feel that I must be the only person to have opened up “guardian” TFSA accounts at SBK.  I wonder if anyone else has had the issues I have had.  But in my humble opinion, and from what I have experienced, it seems that in general (and after being a customer for the past 30 odd years) that Standard Bank is losing touch with its clients.  At no stage in the process, have I felt that anyone actually gives a crud!  I and my daughters are just numbers…..Whats the current motto..."Moving Forward"....I have to chuckle at that.  I wish I had Sim Tshabalala sitting on my shoulder, just watching how this has been handled.

 

If anyone from SBK Online Trading reads this (Bwahahahaha seriously!!!), you are welcome to call me, and I’ll run you through the entire process, and hopefully you can streamline the system a bit. 

 

Ok.  My rant for the day.   I'm back in my zen-peace garden.

7 REPLIES 7
SBG_Trader
Occasional Contributor

Hi there,

 

Apologies for the confusion and inconvenience. Do you have a twitter profile by any chance? If you do, please could you DM us (@SBGTraderZA) your account number so we can assist you. Unfortunately the community doesn't have a private message function.

 

Kind regards,

 

Dineo

Blik2
Contributor

Nope, sorry I dont have a twitter account.

Dineo_T
Contributor
Hi,

Please can you send an email to [email protected] - Include your account details so we can pick you up on the system.
Blik2
Contributor

Fair is fair.  I have had some really good feedback from Online Share Trading on this issue, and to all extent the issue has been successfully resolved.  Thank you to the people who called from Online Share Trading.  That was decent.

Boitumelo
Community Coordinator

Hello @Blik2,

 

We happy that this matter is resolved.

 

Regards,

Boitumelo

partridge1
Regular Contributor

I have a link to my wife's account - no problem - works well. The issue seems to be the emails. OST Staff were really helpful setting this up - and no glitches -this was all done via email and phone calls direct. I have used the OS TFIA now since inception - but I think I am going to AG - whose cleint I am  anyway for the 2018 2019 contributions. Simple reason is that   - the ETF's are not especially cheap for what you get and  I would rather select and pay for active management - moreover in paying for it I want to pay at a lower rate which exists for the TFIA's on their platform.  And then there is the wider choice.... 

Blik2
Contributor

Yip, am all linked up now.  The confusion (mine? SBKs?) seems to have stemmed from a choice I made in the beginning; which was to open Tax Free Savings Accounts under the Auto Share Invest option using Online Banking.  Reason, there was no cost to open an Auto Share Invest Account, if you had a bank account open already.  This worked fine for 2015/16 but for an "unknown" (to me) reason stopped working in 2017.  Which lead me to open an AG account for each.  After much discussion with SBK and OST last week, it seems that the two Tax Free Savings Accounts ("managed" by Online Banking) were converted to Tax Free Investment Accounts (managed by Online Trading).  Both accounts are visible as TFIAs on my Online Trading drop down account options.  I was either not told about this change, or the mail was lost in cyberspace - which lead to the confusion last week.  Anyway, all sorted.