Personal banking needs to be a smoother experience

Personal finance experts recommend couples maintain separate accounts rather than being reliant on a joint account

One of the maxims of personal finance has it that “time is more valuable than money”. But what happens when time is spent chasing your own money. Which one is more valuable then?

An administrative knot I’ve been caught in recently made me question that adage.

The whole episode delivered lessons about unexpected friction within the banking system and the disconnect that still happens in modern customer care and service. It also offers takeaways about flexibility and mobility in modern economies.

In the last quarter of 2014, 83 per cent of UAE residents made purchases online. istockphoto.com

The problem involved my wife changing jobs in Abu Dhabi and the fact that both our salaries are paid into a joint account domiciled with one of the UAE’s main banks. My partner left her old job at the end of one week, was paid her end-of-service that weekend and started her new role at the start of the following week.

Soon after that final salary payment from the old employer was received, the bank said it had blocked the amount in the joint account and advised us to submit several documents in person at our nearest branch, including her new contract details and a salary certificate. These needed to be supported by documents showing I was still in employment, too. This paperwork was lodged at the branch and then sent off by a staff member to the head office for review.

A couple of calls to the bank over the next 48 hours provided assurances that the process would soon be complete. However, our credit cards were later blocked due to the ongoing review of our documents. I’d imagine that most of us run parts of our lives through the subscription economy, so at least one regular payment to a provider was declined during this pending period, adding another layer of hassle.

By the end of the week, the blocked amount was released from the joint account but our credit cards were still inactive. The bank also decided to unilaterally transfer funds from our current account to pay off the entire outstanding amount on our credit card. By this point, our money was more valuable than our time and each action triggered a reaction, meaning another call to customer care.

At the beginning of the following week, normal service was restored and the credit cards were unblocked, but only after several hours on multiple calls and two trips to the branch.

Reading this, regular readers of these pages may arrive at the conclusion that this contributor is both hapless and hopeless when it comes to personal finance problems and challenges.

We need to move beyond interpreting the receipt of an end-of-service payment as indicating a significant change in an account holder’s risk profile

Years ago, my credit card was scammed and I documented my long-term struggles to get the money back. I also lost money when a legitimate investment fund scheme went south, and I have previously espoused the benefits of going into the branch to sort out a financial issue, even though it wasn’t especially useful on this occasion. I’d also really rather not write cheques anymore because the bank doesn’t recognise my signature in the form that I scribble it these days, which opens up another layer of hassle.

Personal finance experts recommend couples maintain separate accounts rather than being reliant on a joint account, despite it being the practice for some households to manage budgets and payments through one account.

One expert previously told The National in an advice column that couples “should maintain at least two banking relationships in the UAE, just in case your bank gets annoyed with you or you get annoyed with the bank”. Sage advice, although not something I was aware of until I was deep in the hole described above.

There is no question that lack of knowledge is on me. But there are also several other observations to be made.

The way the bank’s systems are set up appears to be rooted in the traditional arc of someone finishing a job in the UAE, receiving a final payment and leaving the country some time afterwards. We know that the economy is far more dynamic now, which leads me to think that systems and processes need to match contemporary realities.

We also know that this country is a global beacon for talent and that more and more people see their lives and their futures here. For many people, that future will involve switching jobs or entities regularly to maximise their opportunities.

Furthermore, we know that there is an ambition and an intention to progress end-of-service payments into investment vehicles, but if a bank treats a final salary payment as an unusual transaction and blocks those funds, then that action suggests there is a course correction needed to get vision and reality in sync.

We need to move beyond interpreting the receipt of an end-of-service payment as indicating a significant change in an account holder’s risk profile. In the balance between trust and verification, the former should be the guiding light.

Most personal banking is predicated on customer relations, but there can be too many points of tension in that relationship and very obvious imbalances in terms of information flow. Dynamic economies and opaque bureaucracy are not the right mix.

The whole episode also provided a reminder of how efficient other parts of our lives are.

Abu Dhabi’s Tamm app is widely recognised as a smart, time-saving digital attendant that provides a seamless service for renewing licences, paying tolls and managing many other facets of daily life. It is an elegant solution that removes friction from personal administrative work.

We need more of that, please, in personal banking.