ALAT mobile app review: A redefinition of banking
What is ALAT?
ALAT is the first fully functional digital bank in nigeria. With ALAT, you can carry out all your banking transactions without being physically present at any bank branch.
Mobile banking applications and internet banking services are a lifesaver; imagine you having to go to a bank for every little transaction that you want to carry out. It can get pretty frustrating right? Now imagine that you would never have to step your foot inside your bank branch; this is exactly what ALAT is offering.
ALAT, which is an application that is powered by WEMA bank, offers customers a fully digital banking experience. So, all that is required of you to open and run an ALAT bank account is a device that is connected to the internet and some means of identification.
A quick peek around the ALAT website would show that users can access the banking platform on the web or through a mobile application that is available on Android and iOS devices.
Getting started with ALAT
To sign up for ALAT you would have to enter your phone number, your Bank Verfication Number (BVN), your date of birth and the One Time Password that would be sent to your registered BVN phone number. Once you have done that, you would be asked to confirm if some details, which includes your full name, gender and date of birth, belongs to you. Apparently, ALAT automatically makes use of the information that you submitted during your BVN registration. You would proceed on to set your password and choose a security question. This whole registration process would be over in less than five minutes.
Activating your ALAT Account
After opening your ALAT account, it would remain in a restricted state until you have provided some additional documents that would be listed out on your dashboard. In the restricted state, you would only have the option of funding your account, filling out some personal details and requesting for your ATM card as other features would be unavailable.
You would have to follow their step by step process for verification to activate your account on the mobile application.
Activating your ATM Card
Users can request for their Alat ATM card on the application and it would be delivered to them by UPS courier to their specified address at no cost. By selecting the cards option on the main menu of the application, you would set up a PIN for your ATM card and it would be ready for use at any ATM.
ALAT also gives users the option of activating their cards for use abroad, blocking their cards, and choosing specific channels (web, POS or ATM) to use their cards, all from the mobile application.
Security
Based on reviews from several platforms users seams to be reasonably secure using the ALAT application. Apart from any underlying security, an email would be sent to your registered email address each time you log into your account. This email would also contains information about the device that you logged in with, your login time and date and contacts that you can reach out to if your account is accessed by someone else
Also, the application automatically logs you out after a few minutes of inactivity, and you would have to re-enter your login details again.
What’s different?
Like other banking applications, users can transfer money to and from their ALAT account, purchase airtime and data and make other bill payments. However, ALAT application also comes with some features that are rather unique.
- Transfers and bill payments can be scheduled to hapen ahead of time.
- Users can order for and control their ATM card from their mobile phones.
- Users can set “Goals” and earn a 10% interest per year on any amount saved.
ALAT Goals is one of the most interesting feature in the application. It helps users to save for the things they need by taking a specified amount of money from the account automatically, depending on the specified date scheduled.
Final thoughts
The ALAT application has an impressive and intuitive user interface and is considerably easy to use. Even though there has been trailing complaints about the application, there have been significant improvements since the latest upgrade
However, ALAT does not seem like a bank that can stand on its own just yet. The inability to make cash payments suggests that users must own an already existing account with a physical bank before operating their account on ALAT. Nevertheless, the ALAT banking application has the potential to revolutionise our banking life.
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