12 Tips for Optimising the Use of Your Current Account - 2
Get Best Value and Avoid Paying Through Your Nose.

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• Minimise charges on your account. A major item here is the commission on turnover. First, consider an account that is COT-free, which you will find with some banks, like GTBank's GT Max account. There may be conditions, so be sure you are comfortable with the terms. For a regular current account, banks usually default every account to the upper limit of N5 per N1,000 of debit turnover. If your turnover is significant, you have the bargaining power to press for a rate reduction. It's important to state that there is no obligation on a bank to charge COT and there are customers that are able to strike it down to zero or near to zero. If you have the bargaining power, use it.
  
  Depending on what other transactions you engage in, there may be various other transactions. Most rates can be negotiated, if you have a sizeable level of account operation. Whatever the case, ensure, at least, that you are not billed above the limits set by the Central Bank and the banks, under the auspices of the Bankers Committee, in the bankers tarrif. Though set as upper limits of charges by mutual consent, the tarrif is binding on banks. It's also important that these rates are not uniformly charged among banks. So, don't stay milked by one bank. It helps to know what other banks are charging for any service you use frequently, as the cumulative cost differential may be material. You want to be sure tha the cost of running your account does not become excessive and a drain on your resources.
• Track your account movements. This is simply to say you must take account reconciliation seriously. Make this a regular, formal process with records kept of any discrepancies for necessary follow-up with the bank. Don't assume that everything in your account will be perfectly accurate. Errors occur. Frauds are also perpretrated. Values involved could be substantial. This includes knowing the applicable rate for any fee, especially if you reached a negotiated figure with the bank. The wrong rate could be used, subsequently. Put an effective system in place for monitoring an reconciling your account, and this requires timely action. Most problems are better resolved while still relatively fresh. You help the process when you detect yours early and formally bring them to the attention of the bank.
• Who is your account officer? You need to ask them and get familiar. Most banks assign an account officer to manage each customer, especially those with active accounts. In many ways, a good, familiar account officer will save you a lot of headaches on your account, get your transactions to move faster and minimise the time you invest in running your account. By the time your account officer understands you and your business, he is equally better-placed to provide banking support in various areas to propel your progress. It won't help to float as a general bank customer. Let somebody take special interest in your account and business and try to strike a relationship with the bank, through this representative, that runs on mutual understanding, confidence and enduring partnership. When you build a good relationship with your bankers, there are many ways what you do can leverage and benefit.
• Go online. This doesn't obviate the need for the account officer that provides human interface, but can make your account operation a lot smoother. What does it take to use online banking: you get a PC (you probably already have), you subcribe to a private (recommended - home or office but not cybercafes) internet access and you request online access from your bank. How difficult is this to use? Most interfaces are as simple as checking your email. You are better off not only have the full picture of your account right on your desk (you see your account statement just as it is) but can effect various transactions (depending on the bank) just sitting on your desk. It can even be late at night, at your convinience. So, why run to the bank to check your balance? Why travel to the bank and spend time to queue to draw money, just to pay me, if you can log into account and effect a transfer to me in just 3 minutes. There is so much you can do with the saved time to help your business perform better.
• Protect your cheque-book and PIN. Your cheques are the key to withdrawals from your account and you don't want them abused. Remember that signatures do get forgeted and if you leave your cheques to easy access, they could be put to wrong use on your account. Granted that you may be able to prove that you didn't write the cheque but note that in cases of clear negligence on your part, the bank can get absolved from responsibility. Or you get of with sharing the value of the loss. These processes may also cost you a lot of time and litigation, better avoided by firmly restricting access to the cheque-book, seal/stamp (if part of your mandate) or details of the signing mandate. Learn also to write your cheques uniquely (so deviations are obvious) and properly (for instance, not allowing gaps or abbreviations that can encourage alterations). If you use online banking, your user name and password will be even more sensitive than your cheque-book and needs absolute protection. Luckily, you can change them over time or if compromised. Exercising simple care over these items shouldn't be a challenge, should it? If you don't, it could cost you good money.

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