Survey: Personal Banking

I set up this survey after seeing what looked like too many awards being given to various banks by their peers, fellow bankers, and other entities that did not face the daily trial of using them.

Which is the bank we most identify as our main bank?

More than one third of us claimed that Standard Bank was our main bank.

Just under a quarter said that ABSA fulfilled this role.

And Nedbank and FNB each came in at just under a fifth each.

When we look only at women, however, the numbers change a lot. For women, Standard Bank, ABSA and FNB are about equal at one third each, with Nedbank claiming just 3%.

How long have been with this main bank?

95% - that's 95 out of every 100 of us - have been with the same bank for more than 3 three years, and a huge 82% of us have been with the same bank for more than ten years. 

This might explain why the banks get away with maltreating their clients. They're a common source of immense discontent. (Women are likely to stay at the same bank much longer, with 100% of them being with the same bank for more than three years.)

Which other banks do we use, apart from our main bank?

First National Bank wins here, with 43% of us using them for other services.

Both Standard Bank and Nedbank come in with about one third, and ABSA gets about one quarter.

For women the four major banks share the load more or less equally. (Nedbank seems fine as a second bank, despite the very low usage as a main bank.)

Which products do we use?

Internet banking is here to stay, with more than nine tenths of us using it.

And we're using more credit cards (89%) than we're using cheque accounts (76%).

It looks as though we're using credit cards rather than overdrafts as our main means of borrowing money.

How do we rate our overall experiences with ALL our banks this past year?

The results for this question needed some adjustment because I included a N/A column which messed up the survey calculations.  

Nedbank has the highest percentage of happy clients (happy and very happy). 47%, in fact. FNB is next with 46%, Standard is up there with 43%, but just 30% of these respondents are happy or very happy with ABSA.

ABSA has the highest percentage of unhappy clients (34%), compared to Standards 30%, Nedbanks 22%, and FNBs 18%. About the only conclusion I can draw is that ABSA might be a good bank to avoid right now. (March 2009) 

Although the rankings are similar for female clients, they seem to be a lot happier than the men when it comes to banking relationships.

Rather than bury you with more pictures, the demographics were:

Gender: 74% Male, 26% Female.

Age: 38% below 46, 41% between 46 and 60, and 21% older than 60.

Location: 40% Gauteng, 37% Western Cape, 16% KZN

This survey was conducted between March 19, 2009 and March 25, 2009. The goal was to identify the banks we use the most for our personal banking, as well as assess the way we feel about them. The sample of 122 respondents came from the PetesWeekly and Business Warriors communities, per an emailed request.