Zenith Bank! The Worst Bank To Own A Domiciliary Account

This is a guest post compiled by Uche Francis for Shelaf.com 

Hello friends, I’m UcheFrancis. And if you could remember vividly, I wrote a post here earlier about how I was able to open a Zenith bank domiciliary account without providing any reference whatsoever as well as the required $100 minimum deposit amount.

Still, on that note, the procedure worked and required you to own a savings account for at least 3 months with the bank. I bet most of you were able to open yours without hassle, especially those who earn online from Google AdSense and needed a Domiciliary account to receive the raw dollar so as to be able to sell to aboki’s at a higher rate compared to the official rate of which using a savings account gives. However, I’m here today to update you guys on the whole situation, and possibly ask you not to open your domiciliary account with Zenith bank no matter how it appears easy. As they from my experience, happen to be one of the worst banks to operate a foreign currency account (dom account). With that said, why is Zenith the worst bank to operate a domiciliary account? The reasons are as follows; ==>1. Getting your dollar out is a war (no raw dollar and transfer were so difficult). Zenith bank rules and restrictions are so killing if I must use that word. They can bring in any fake rule just to make sure you don’t get your dollar out while they use it to trade and make profits on the FX market. I remember going to their 2 Owerri branch and was told they have no dollars to pay me. So I extended the chase to Nnewi, Ekwulobia and Enugu branch still to no avail. With the excuse that CBN had stopped dollar deposits so making it hard for them to get dollars. Although to some extent, this is true – the CBN part. But they forget the fact that the dollars came in from abroad and cash must have been remitted to them by swift. You can see a screenshot of my tweets with them on twitter.

==>2. Zenith bank staffs can lie just to make a point and chase you away. I remember they told me FX transfers has been put on hold by CBN when I opted to transfer the dollars out… I was like how on earth is that possible? And went to google.  Nothing of such was in place so I asked GTBank on twitter if CBN actually placed a ban on FX transfer and the answer was a capital NO. Check out my post on nairaland after Zenith Bank held my $2000 for over 4 months. ==>3. Their staffs are inexperienced in the area of FX transactions; After GTB assured me there was no such thing banned on FX transfers, I stormed one of their branches in Owerri with anger boiling down and queried with them to allow me transfer my dollars to another zenith dom account (that of an aboki that want to buy the dollars). And the lady in charge of anything FX, after trying for some time had to call in for help on how to transfer from Zenith to Zenith dom accounts. Meaning the bank is dead in the area of FX. Because if she has been doing that daily, I don’t see how the procedure would have skipped her mind. ==>4. Aboki’s rejected Zenith transfers; I wouldn’t have been here writing this if I didn’t get to talk with the aboki I transferred that fund to his zenith dom account that day. Last week, (four months after that transaction) he told me he had to go through hell to get the money out. And that customers were not even moved to buy dollars into their zenith dom account. So for that, he will never for any reason do zenith to zenith again… I thought it was a joke, but a lot of them also said the same “zenith is not a real bank when talking on the dom account”. ==>5. I don’t think they are still issuing dollar card; I got my GTB dollar card in 8 working days. That of zenith is still to get to me after 5 months. The excuse was that they produce the card abroad and ship to Nigeria. Can you imagine? Way Toward Having said that zenith bank is the worst bank to own a domiciliary account, which bank(s) then is the best? Based on my experience from usage and mingling around with all this aboki’s exchanging dollars, I’ve come to realize that GTBank, Access bank, Diamond, and Firstbank happen to be the best four banks to open a dom account with amongst which GTB is the big boss. GTB.. GTBank although difficult to deal with, are just too good at what they do. No wonder after all the bad comments, they still strive. The account was ready in 2 days. Got their visa debit dollar card in 8 working days. Dollar transfers and withdrawal are instant and a whole lot. I remember being able to withdraw up to $5000 when the time was almost 4 pm and they didn’t tell me, other customers have collected it finished. To open your own GTBank dom account, you can follow the steps I used in opening mine to make the whole process a walk over.

This post was written by Uche Francis. He is a Blogger, Self Published Author, and Content Creator who is mostly online, preaching to the world about technology and providing solutions to tech-related issues through his tech blog TechDavids.com. A tech fan base for all Naija Youths with like minds.