The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) has ruled that FNB must withraw misleading claims from its Flexi Deposit Account adverts.<\/p>\n
A claim was brought to the ASA saying that FNB’s Deposit Account adverts were misleading customers to believe that they could withdraw up to 30% of their deposited cash at any time.<\/p>\n
The FNB Flexi Deposit Account, as advertised, allows customers to add money at any time to a 3-month investment account that provides “great interest” and gives customers \u201caccess to a portion” of their money at any time – a figure which the bank advertises as “up to 30%”.<\/p>\n
Through exploring the account’s terms and conditions, the ASA found that customers could, in fact, not withdraw more than 15% of deposited cash at any one time – meaning that it would take two withdrawals of 15% over two days for the advertised conditions to be met.<\/p>\n
Terms and conditions apply<\/strong><\/p>\n Responding to the complaint, FNB said that “the advertising clearly mentions that one can withdraw UP TO 30%. At no stage during the advertisement is it claimed that the investor may unconditionally withdraw the entire 30%.”<\/p>\n FNB further cited a previous case regarding its “up to 15%” cash-back fuel reward, which was submitted to the ASA for similar claims of being misleading, which was overturned and dismissed as FNB’s terms and conditions adequately explained the rewards process.<\/p>\n However, this time the ASA ruled against FNB, highlighting a key difference in the cases: “There is a subtle but distinct difference between the above [fuel rewards] ruling and the current dispute,” the ASA said.<\/p>\n “In the FNB Money Back Fuel matter, there were certain conditions under which a customer could, as a matter of fact, get the full 15% back. The relevant terms and conditions were merely to explain under which circumstances one could qualify in full for the claimed reward.”<\/p>\n “In the current matter, one can never, as a matter of fact, withdraw 30% of the money deposited at any time. At best, one can ‘make up to two withdrawals of no more than 15% each’,” the ASA ruled.<\/p>\n As a result of the ruling, FNB must withdraw it’s “withdraw up to 30%” claim and may not use it in the current format in future.<\/p>\n Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n FNB cuts point-of-sale withdrawal costs<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Why FNB is rated as the top bank in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n