Equity Bank is unable to explain why they charge Shs 30 for a free service
Equity Bank charges Kshs 30 when one transfers money from Equity Bank account to another Equity Bank account if the transaction is done via Equity Bank’s Mobile App. That’s not a problem really. Actually, according to data that Equity Bank sent to us in attempt to explain the Kshs 30 charge, the transaction is the cheapest in the banking sector. The problem is that when one transfers money from Equity Account to another Equity Account via Equitel STK, the transaction is completely free.
There are several ways one can transfer money from his/her Equity Account to another Equity Account. One way is for someone to visit a branch and perform that transaction over the counter. In many occasions, over the counter transactions are more expensive than any other form of transaction, as banks have to incur several costs to maintain bank branches.
Second option is for one to do Internet banking. I haven’t been able to find just how much Equity Bank charges when the transfer is done via Internet banking, but I can guess it is Kshs 30.
Third, one can opt to do the transaction via mobile banking, which comes in many flavors. Mobile banking can be via the standard USSD through the Eazzy247, or via Equitel’s STK. When the transactions are done via the standard USSD, there is a cost associated, especially the cost of accessing the USSD service. If the transfer is done via Equitel’s STK (Sim Tool Kit), then the transfer is free.
My reasoning therefore is that the actual transaction of transferring money from one Equity Bank Account to another Equity Bank Account is supposed to be free; that is if you were to incur any charges when you opted to use the standard Eazzy247 USSD method, then the charges you should incur are charges associated with the use of the USSD, nothing more. The charges associated with USSD are those charged by mobile operator e.g. Safaricom.
When you opt to use a mobile App (or the Internet), the cost you should incur for transferring money from one Equity Account to another Equity Account are charges associated with Internet Access, nothing more. However, even though Equity App charges the lowest in the market, Equity Bank hasn’t been able to explain why they add an additional Kshs 30 for the transaction, when that very transaction is free when done via Equitel’s STK.
Assume for example that you have a smartphone running on Equitel SIM card, and you have also downloaded the Equity Bank App for your banking transactions, what would encourage you to use the App for Equity to Equity cash transfers to incur a Kshs 30 charge when the same transaction can be done at zero cost when you instead use the STK option?
We have reached out to Equity for them to offer a proper explanation why they charge Kshs 30 for a service that is supposed to be offered free of charge. If and when they give us feedback that answers our specific question, we will update this article accordingly. In the meantime we encourage you to not use the Equity Banking App for the Equity to Equity cash transfers, but instead use Equitel STK.
