Over the years, I’ve gotten very comfortable with making mobile transfers, using apps, and also making use of USSD when it comes to making transactions. Before all this, I was a cash person, I just preferred to withdraw cash and use it to run my business, buying the things that I wanted. However, after the cash crunch of 2023, and the cost of withdrawing money continued to rise, I had to consider a shift in plans.
I began to pay for most of my stuff either by transfer or by card. I started having fewer reasons to carry cash around and I liked it. Thanks to working remotely, I don’t really go out much, but when I do go, it really helps me. I only need to worry about the cash I’d have to pay for transport. But if I get to use Uber or Bolt transport service, I make sure I pay via transfer, and if I use the BRT system, I pay with their cards.
This is a system that I’ve gotten very comfortable with and I like it. It reduces the amount of cash that I carry around and I also don’t have to spend so much on withdrawal fees. Although, I still need to have some cash lying around, it’s always little because, at this point, almost all the shops in my area are accepting transfers. Shopping has been made so easy that you can even pay for something as little as N150 via mobile transfer. That’s about 0.1 HBD.
Anyway, like I already mentioned, it’s a system that I’ve gotten comfortable with. However, it also has its own issues, and the chief of that is the network. It could be a network from the service providers, or from the bank itself. Either way, it can be a big pain in the butt. There’s nothing quite as frustrating as transferring money to someone while you’re in a pinch and they not receiving it. It’s always frustrating, especially when you’ve been debited.
Although nothing really happens to the money and it always comes back into your account, it can make for very awkward conversations because many people will refuse to believe that you’ve sent money and the network is delaying it, they’ll instead be quick to believe that you’ve scammed them and are trying to steal from them.
Other times, you might not have that issue, it might never go that far. It could just be like my case where I sent money last week but it never went through even though I was debited. The money was stuck in limbo for days and I couldn’t access it, rendering me broke to the point that I had to ask my sister for financial assistance. Every morning, I refreshed my bank app to check if the money had been bounced back and every morning, it showed negative.
Just yesterday though, the money finally returned to its rightful place. And it was with a breath of relief. This is something that many of us are used to because it has happened to us at one time or the other. However, I’m glad that it was resolved without me having to go to the bank or anything. This is the only issue that ever really arises with mobile transfers, be it USSD or app.
But still, no one can deny how convenient it is.
Posted Using INLEO
