A lot of people may not be saying it but something is wrong at BancABC. Their system challenges have become so frequent that a lot of customers are starting to take notice. Last Friday the bank issued a notice explaining that they were facing system challenges across all channels. The notice from last week came hot on the heels of another one. A couple of months ago prepaid Visa cardholders complained that the cards didn’t seem to be working. Given the consequences of such downtime, it is shocking that months later the system is far from stable.

Right now as we write the bank’s prepaid Visa system is not taking deposits. This means that if you want to make a deposit into your prepaid Visa card you are not able to do so. This essentially reduces the usefulness of BancABC’s prepaid card because this is not a credit card. You can only spend what you deposit on the card. If you are not able to make a deposit you are not able to use your card.

Given how Zimbabweans rely on prepaid cards to conduct their online activities this system downtime can have a crippling effect. A lot of students who study abroad rely on the cards to receive their allowances from their parents. Some people also use the card to make critical payments for web hosting, ACCA services and so on.