When one hears about online banking, we are usually very skeptical because of various stories of fraud and other tales of woe, hence I took my friend’s rambling during an outing about GTBank’s social banking with a pinch of salt.
I however decided to give it a try a couple of days later because it seemed easier to open a GTBank account for my business dealings with some partners instead of waiting for cheques to clear into my account with my present bank. Since I couldn’t squeeze out time to visit a branch and pick up an account opening form, I therefore said a prayer, logged on to my Facebook account and searched for the bank’s fan page.
The first thing that hit me was the Bank’s timeline image which I must confess is different from those of other bank’s I’ve seen… something about ‘You can win big this season’. I was also shocked at the number of people who had liked the Bank’s page (over 1.5 million).
A bit assured and intrigued, I clicked on its social banking tab and hence began one of the smoothest and easiest account opening experiences I have had in my life.
I maintain accounts with different Nigerian banks, but the simplicity of the GTBank Social Banking Account Opening process really shocked me. All I did was complete the form, selecting a regular account because of the volume of transactions I envisaged performing and generated an account code, which I was asked to take to the Bank branch of my choice.
I must admit I immediately forgot about the account code because of other pressing matters, but two days later I got a mail from the Bank reminding me to visit the branch. Since I was around Adeola Odeku, I decided to visit the branch there. Now here’s the kick, it took less 10 minutes to complete the process and activate my account.
I also found out that I could check my GTBank account balance, purchase airtime and transfer money, on Facebook.
I don’t know where GTBank got the insight to introduce such an innovation, but be sure I will be paying a lot of attention to such a bank going forward.
Dear GTBank, kindly take this as a thumbs up from a grateful customer.
Regards
Oyedotun Alabi