For absa brand loyalty trumps informed consumer choice when it comes to new young clients

Are you looking to open your first child's bank account? When it comes to absa there is no point in doing research on the best offering as opposed to simply opening an account for your child with your own bank. In January my son got his first monetary birthday present. I thought this was a great opportunity to introduce him to banking. I bank with Standard Bank. I liked their app for kids but I thought the right thing to do was to do my homework, I did and arrived at the conclusion that absa was the best offering - they also have an app with added perks and albeit negiigible, they pay interest which I thought was an important principle. So off we go to open the account. After being chased away - must make an appointment first - a lengthy paperwork process that tested my son's belief that this was a good idea and a few failed attempts at being able to use the ATM to make a deposit (it seems few absa atms like taking your cash) - we got things on track. No-one, however, told me at any point, that you cannot use the app nor receive the benefits if the parent doesn't bank with absa - you have to authorise the kids app through the adults' app. I wrote to absa on 22 Jan - they thanked me for raising the matter and for contributing to improving absa's service - but not actually committing to addressing the problem other than referring to IT. I pointed out it would appear to be more of a policy problem than a IT problem. Another couple of automatic responses. I followed up again in July. I got a random request for every minute detail of my device...which I queried only to get the same response as on 22 Jan. So. The moral of the story. Just go with your own bank, brand loyalty trumps any informed consumer choice.