On January 26th, I was robbed on the street in Vistabella, San Fernando. I lost my phone and my wallet with credit card, ATM card, driver’s licence, cash and a card with my savings account number. The next day I closed the account and thus began the process of getting a new savings account. As of today — February 7th, an entire 11 days later — I still do not have a new savings account.
After visiting four branches of three different banks and still unsuccessful, I decided to write this blog post where I compare the ability of the average person to apply for a savings account online at the six retail banks in Trinidad & Tobago: Republic Bank, RBC Royal Bank, First Citizens Bank, Scotiabank, Intercommercial Bank and Bank of Baroda.
Suffice to say, you can’t actually complete the application process for a savings account online at any bank in Trinidad & Tobago. So what I’m comparing are the banks’ willingness/ability to begin the process online.
image courtesy Sideeka Ali aka @funkyplet
Here are the parameters:
- I am a new customer (hence I do not have any other savings accounts at these banks)
- I am employed and can produce the requirements to open a savings account such as multiple forms of identification, a job letter and a utility bill in my name coming to my address
- It is an account for a single person
Let’s get started.
Republic Bank Limited
The TimeSaver Account is Republic Bank’s version of a regular savings account. A dedicated page is 3 clicks away from the home page with a tab to “Apply Online”. When clicked, a page with a message appears saying that the application form is currently unavailable, they’re making some modifications and it will be back up soon.
For their sake, I hope so.
RBC Royal Bank (formerly RBTT)
RBC’s savings account is aptly named Regular Savings. A dedicated page lies 2 clicks away from the home page. There is no link to apply for a regular savings account online.
Where the information about the account ends on the page, there is no call-to-action below stating to contact your nearest branch to open a regular savings account. Instead, a simple “contact us” box is found to the top right of the information with no clear call-to-action specific to the regular savings account.
Just so you’d know, when I walked in off the street to enquire about opening a savings account at RBC, I was told I now needed to make an appointment to do so. I’d love to hear about the efficacy of this new policy.
Scotiabank
From Scotiabank’s website, I was left to guess that their version of a regular savings account is the ScotiaMAX Deposit Account. A dedicated page lies 2 clicks from the home page. There is no link to apply for the account online.
At the bottom of the page though is a call to action to contact them for more information about the product. The link leads to their general contact information page and you are then left to figure out which number you should call to find out more information.
First Citizens Bank
FCB’s version of a regular savings account is called the Statement Savings Account. A dedicated page lies 2 clicks away from the home page. You can begin the application process for the account online.
At the end of the information on the page is a call-to-action button that says “apply now”. When clicked, you are taken to a page titled Apply Now where you choose what type of customer you are. Since I was new to FCB, I chose that option.
I completed the online application – maybe 10-12 pages in total. Of course, I still had to visit my chosen branch to sign the application, present my ID and proof of address. There was no mention on the confirmation page about presenting a job letter, although this is a requirement (which I found out when I walked in off the street to make an enquiry).
Intercommercial Bank Limited
IBL’s version of a regular savings account is called the Booster Savings Account. A dedicated page lies just 1 click from the home page. Unfortunately, you cannot apply for this account online from the IBL website. A call-to-action link at the bottom of the page leads to the general contact page for the bank.
In fact, Intercommercial Bank does not even have internet banking services! They do seem to have a telebanking facility though.
Bank of Baroda
What can be said of Bank of Baroda’s ‘website’ for Trinidad & Tobago? Not much at all actually.
It’s a single page with contact information for their 3 branches. No information about products and services; nothing to convince me to do business with this entity.
Just to be clear, I could not apply for a regular savings account online at Bank of Baroda.
What I’d Like To Be Able To Do
With no knowledge of the regulations concerning banks in Trinidad & Tobago nor any of their internal compliance policies, here’s what I’d like to be able to do as a new customer:
- begin the process of applying for a regular savings account from the banks’ websites
- upload scans of identification, proof of address and job letter
- receive an email or telephone confirmation of the application
- then be given a few days to visit the chosen branch to present my identification and sign the application, as I understand there may be a need to do so for compliance purposes
Who’s The Winner?
The obvious winner in this non-battle is First Citizens Bank. There’s no reason that the other five banks couldn’t have a similar process.
The lesson here for other businesses is that your website can be used to facilitate an easier transaction for your customers. If there are processes that can be duplicated on your website, you should go ahead and do so. Your customers will thank you for it.
Contact imarketSB to speak with you about processes you can duplicate on your website.
Bouncy Castle Rental Business Generates 169% Revenue Increase
From Website Developed By imarketSB. 
