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Posted by Felix Okoli on Tuesday July 26, 2016 at 16:19:10:

I recently tried to pay for electricity bills in Nigeria using my mobile banking app and one thing that happened was that my account was debited without giving me any credit that I've paid for the bills. I paid for PHCN Prepaid electricity bills and what I was expecting to receive was the meter token or PIN which they normally give as soon as the payment has been successful. In my case, the payment was successful but I didn't get any sms containing the meter token and so I was worried.

Well, this was not the first time I experienced it and so the best thing I did was to either wait for the transaction to be reversed and my account credited back with the same amount within 24 to 48 hrs. When that did no happen, I had to contact my bank through email so that they rectify the problem.

Well, since it was a necessary utility bill and my lights were already going off, I had to make another transaction but with a different value so that it would be clearly different from the first one.

So, after my mobile banking service disappointed me, I sent an email to my bank indicating my account number, the amount involved and the reference number. Funny enough, a bank staff replied and included the meter token. The problem with their reply was that he gave me a meter token for the second transaction which I had already received and not for the first transaction that I sent. I have to say that in Nigeria, if you don't open your eyes and monitor your bank account transactions, you would just be losing money because of their inefficiency. The bottom line is that mobile, internet and ATM services are not yet 100% perfect and they still need humans to monitor it else they'd be losing their money.

So, I replied the email again and told them that the meter token had already been used and that I needed the one for the first transaction which was of a different amount. Well, they reversed the transaction after my second email and I received a credit alert for that prepaid bills paid which mobile banking failed to automatically generate.

There are probably many things that cause online transactions to fail or be partly successful in Nigeria and it may be from your phone, network provider or the bank's service. One can't always blame the bank or network when these things happen but it's always good to verify that all transactions on your account are actually ok by you.

I've also heard stories of people using ATMs and their accounts got wrongly debited even though the ATM did not give them any money. It's always good to complain to your bank within 48 hrs or less if you are unsatisfied with a particular transaction.

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Comments:
Re: Account debited without getting credit for bills paid Reply by lade on Thursday November 24, 2016 at 17:33:36:

Better than all other banking apps I have ever used by far. I do a lot more with Union bank mobile app. Paying for my bills and carrying out transfers have never been so easy.

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