When Banking Rules Change And They Keep Quiet

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Over the last month I have done three international EFT payments which under normal circumstances should not be a problem. The first one went through without a hitch having received confirmation of payment and the purchase of waste material was received the following week. I think the fact that this company deals with foreign clients so therefore receives foreign payments meant they knew where to look for foreign payments and monitor the FOREX side of their banking app so are always aware of all incoming transactions. If you are not expecting incoming foreign transactions you would never even know you have incoming payments waiting to be actioned.

I sent two other payments one being to my wife's bank account as a test run so it was set up and already linked for future payments if required. Another payment was sent to another company which involved fork lift hire. These payments happened two weeks ago and nothing has been reflecting even though I had confirmation of payment from my Revolut banking app.

They say it can take up to 3 days to reflect which is kind of normal with any international payment yet 14 days is now rather ridiculous and the stress of where has the money gone is real. Last night over dinner with friends I mentioned this and my buddy told me to check the FOREX section of the local SA bank account. Apparently this is a thing these days as in the past payments would automatically arrive without having to push accept and the reason for the international payment.

This afternoon we went into our local bank branch as we could not find where to locate the FOREX on the banking app and once shown it highlighted the awaiting payment. If you do not know it will be waiting there for 21 days before being I presume sent back to the sender being myself in this case.

Once this was completed I had to inform the forklift hire company they need to do the same or something similar on their banking app. I feel this is crazy and just another set of new controls being put in place for receiving money from another country. This all kind of makes sense now knowing that the government plans to tax pensioners from the 1st March this year.

The EFT to myself even though it was a test rum may not have been the smartest thing to do if we had even known this was the new way of receiving international payments. Luckily I only sent a small amount so this would not be flagged and the reason we gave for the transaction was a gift.

If i had known this was going to cause such a problem and delays in hiring a fork lift I would have just gone into their offices and tapped my card to make payment. This I think is what I will have to do going forward as I do not want to be highlighted by the tax man for sending money I have already paid taxes on. The idea that they could tax my earnings again in SA is very real and why they plan to tax expat pensioners from next month. Double taxing is in my mind very unfair and is morally wrong on all levels.

I am more relieved than ever to have secured an off shore bank account seeing how the landscape is moving over here showing signs of desperation trying to find more taxes to boost their revenues which are in decline. Crypto payments crossed my mind so many times when I was seeing what was going on with the new changes with regards to FOREX. The government and banks have no idea what is bubbling away and they are dead meat because they cannot control these payments.

Posted Using INLEO