Digital banks are changing the banking landscape in Nigeria with innovative solutions that address the banking needs of many Nigerians. Today, there are a lot of apps offering loans, investments, and savings services.
Specifically, the apps that offer savings services now make it easier and more rewarding for Nigerians to save, even amidst a tightening economy. Interests on savings apps are far higher than what traditional banks offer on savings accounts. This explains why some of these apps are enjoying more patronage from Nigerians.
One of the apps in this category is the V App, owned by VFD Microfinance Bank. The digital bank specialises in offering people the ability to save and get high interest on their savings. You can open a VBank account in 2 minutes with just your smartphone. With a V account, you can expect a streamlined digital and mobile banking experience, easy access to your account, and swift and secure transfers, withdrawals, and bill.
According to the company, using the app allows you to take charge of your banking experience. And there are no confusing charges or paperwork as everything happens on your phone. The V app also allows users to track their expenses and income, group budgets, and set spending limits.
A quick look at the app
At 18MB download size, the V app manages to stay in between the large-size apps and the light ones that do not give users memory space headache. The user interface looks simple and easy to navigate. And with over 500,000 downloads on Google Play Store alone, the app is one of the favourites for many Nigerians when it comes to savings.
Users’ reviews
As of the last count, over 7,000 users of the V app have reviewed it on the Google Play Store based on their experiences. While the app enjoys tons of positive reviews, several issues experienced by users point to the fact that it could be better than it currently is. Here’s what the users are saying:
One of the users, Ojo Ayobami John, said the app met most of his expectations but has some shortcomings that need to be addressed.
“It’s a lovely application and it met most of my expectations. However, there are a few things that I’d like the developer to work on. It takes a lot of time before the app loads, especially the first page of the app. It’s disturbing to always get a log-in notification each time I log in to my account with the same device. It would be good to do that if I log in with an unknown and not my same device. Again, the app is not supposed to show my account balance after selecting the account,” he stated.
For Onyemenonu Precious, unusual deductions on her account are making the app look like a regular banking app.
“I was enjoying the app and its free charges but all of a sudden, I’ve noticed my money is being deducted bit by bit, sometimes with debit alerts, sometimes I won’t even get a debit alert. Recently some amount was sent into my account only for me to check the balance and find out that some money was deducted I checked my transaction history and still can’t find any trace of it. What’s happening? You people should look into it please,” she wrote.
Another user with the name Michycuisine faced difficulty logging in to the app. So, they complained about it, saying:
“This app got me so frustrated today! I mean, why does it take forever to open? If someone cannot quickly open the app and make a fast transaction within a minute, before the app comes up for you to log in, you’ll be frustrated already. I’ve been managing it like this for a while now but today it got on my nerves when I badly needed to make a quick transfer but it didn’t open for good 30 mins! And it wasn’t a network issue because I had to reconnect to someone else’s WiFi to be sure.”
Another user, Abrere Progress, said: “I enjoy everything about the app, especially the free transfers and sender’s account number. However, some things need to be fixed. Imagine making a transfer and most times the response you get is ‘transaction failed but check account balance before retrying’. It’s just too often and It’s annoying. Please fix it.”
For Onyekachi Okwuolisa, the issue of uncertainty over the failure or success of a transaction is also a concern. He said:
“It’s a good app, best services ever, chat with customer support and functionality are both fabulous. Just a little request to the developers: Instead of saying a “transaction may have failed blah blah blah…” and still keeping us on the same page to repeat the transaction, move the user away to the history page to avoid repeating the transaction. That way, the user can vividly see the last transaction. I have lost some money to this as I got double debits.”
Alli Nathaniel says the app had been great and user-friendly until recently when several issues started popping up. “There’s always an issue with the app, repeated transaction. I Can’t even make use of the app during emergencies.
Bottomline
From the customers’ reviews, the V App has one of the most responsive customer services among digital banks. Although its savings features are good, the V App still needs improvement in many areas, especially with the issue of repeated transactions. The issue of logging in challenges, as experienced by some of the users, calls for a quick bug fix on the app.
