This is an interesting and i think the more people are informed the better. I think Banks in Kenya have a field day as compared to banks in the West and i guess this is the only place where innovation is followed by legislation hence consumers are hurting most.

That said i rem when i worked for one bluechip bank in Kenya fresh from campus,there was an senior executive from UK and i remember his asking why there no banking services on Sundays..naturally one of our bosses said that banks are closed on Sundays and his answer was ' open the damn branches on Sunday and people will come f****ing hell'


Success is not measured by what you accomplish,but by the opposition you have encountered and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against the overwhelming odds'

@Mozenrat. I agree with you on the point that bashing banks has become real fashionable. Truth is that these guys are in business and out to make a profit.

When borrowing,it is clearly a case of borrower beware. You need to read all the fine print before taking out the loan and indeed,you MUST shop around. Banks SHOULD have NO RIGHT to alter fundamental terms and conditions e.g. the early repayment clause (i.e. without a penalty). Central Bank should clearly enforce borrowers rights such as those.

Having said that,you forgot to account for the dividends you earn on the amount that you have contributed,hence a SACCO loan will still be appreciably cheaper than a bank loan.

On the other hand,with most SACCOs (if I remember correctly) you need to save for at least 6 months before you can borrow and huge lumpsum cash injections will not normally count towards the loan multiplier - Unless you wait for some period. Moreover,depending on the liquidity of the SACCO,you might have to queue for even up to 3 months.


Opportunity calls but few respond.

The only consistent condition on barclays loan is that 'terms and conditions are subject to change without prior notice'.

I had to pay an extra 500/= to stay in the credit account so that they can continue quenching their interest and charges greed thirst until they are satisfied.(each subsequent card statement comes with interest not withstanding that I paid before the date on the card statement.My fuss is that these terms changed and there was no official communication .I realised the terms had changed after receiving their statement.I have been using the card on rare instances since 2005 same way and I've never complained because these charges were not there).

The only charge they may have forgotten is exit charge on credit card.

Surely barclays is doing something the wrong way. I believe that not all the contributors in this thread are not all mad to keep on bashing the bank.

Barclays should do something otherwise they will lose many potential clients.I hope their overseas parent is watching.

Sad how a couple bloggers miss the simple concept behind the co-op movement so much so that we can compare saving to putting money under mattresses...............maybe afterall,ignorance is bliss............What is a co-op??.....

http://www.ica.coop/coop/index.html


Yombo dhier....!!

bbk ni bure kabisa. You will need to check the monthly interest computation as well. I have complained over time and their response is the time of the month the interest is computed. Secondly they forced me to open a barclay account ati for transfer of funds. 6 months down the line i was sent a letter showing that i owned them 2,800 being interest charged to the inactive account.. they are very unprofessional,i decided to discontinue all my dealing with them.

SACCos have better interest rates and will pay dividends at the end of the year. i topped up my shares in sacco,got a bigger loan and repayed barclay in full. they have not yet come back to me for additional interest..





'Build your own dreams,or someone else will hire you to build their's!'

@ Adept

move...NIC ?




Zama za Kengen IPO.... zama za mali

They are still charging someone I know 21.5% interest on his car loan which he has been trying to refinance.

Want to be a millionaire.... plant a million cabbages and sell them at a bob...

@ monzerat- i think uve answered your question

Saccos beat BBK any day!




Me first,U next

@mozenrat

I agree that this wasn't a debate on Sacco vs banks (or Barclays for that matter),but it's been educative anyway. Saccos are an alternative source of loans.

Your statement reads 'tell me,If I had 100k in my house and borrowed 200K from a bank at 18% interest while you had contributed 100k to a Sacco and borrowed 300K at 12%.... Wouldn't we pay the same amount as interest? give or take 0.3%'. This is entirely wrong if a proper comparison is done.

My explanation. Your analogy states that you need 300k (for whatever reason).

Going the bank way,you already have 100k in the house and borrow 200k to make a total of 300k. Therefore you pay 18% interest on 200k. This is true. Where you got the calculations wrong is the sacco way. You see,you already have 100k in the sacco but you borrow 300k. Therefore,you pay 12% interest on 200k. After paying 200k,you will write off your loan with your 100k contributions in the sacco (essentially means leaving the sacco and not paying any more interest). Therefore,there is no way the interest will be a paltry 0.something. Do the math friend.

To be fair in comparison,i will go by your explanation of interest difference of 0.3% (mind you the sacco is still lower). This assumes you do not want to leave the sacco and decide to pay interest on the entire 300k borrowed. This gives astounding results.Whereas you will have a total of 300k the bank way (i mean 100k savings + 200k borrowings at 18%),you will have 400k the sacco way (i mean 100k sacco savings + 300k borrowings at 12% interest). And having a total of 400k (sacco) vs 300k (bank) my friend is still lower by an interest rate of 0.3% that you gave.

I was not fighting you my friend,we are simply learning from each other,and that is the power of SK.

From the moment I came from the village I had always decided in ma mind that these big multinational banks are a no go,up till now I have never regretted this!!!!


The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.