First National Bank (FNB) is all about giving its customers additional benefits. eBucks, discounts on software, rebates on massive petrol prices — it’s all designed to make you like them. The bank has a new batch of please-like-me stuff heading in customers’ direction.

These new benefits are along the lines of previous offerings. The tagline for its announcement today is ‘Beyond Banking’, and signals how FNB is looking to be useful for more than just financial services. As if that wasn’t obvious before.

Listening to FNB

FNB has teamed up with a whole range of new services, in a bid to make banking with the institution more attractive. African audiobook service BiB is one of the bank’s new partners. So is QuickBus, which is a little like Safair for bus travel. Discount service The Entertainer is expanding a little. Then there’s tutoring app ExtraMarks, smart home brand Ring (which is basically Amazon), and Xiaomi also on the list. Access to these is via the FNB banking app — as with every other service the brand offers.

ExtraMarks sees FNB customers accessing a “…complimentary subscription for interactive learning support from Grade R to 12 valued at over R2000.” This can be accessed from the eBucks tab in the FNB app.

As far as BiB goes, First National’s customers receive access to a batch of free audiobooks, in a range of African languages. Additionally, the first 30,000 users will get their first paid-for book for free. Finally, a subscription to the audiobook service, which will cost R160/m, provides four credits that can be used to redeem two to four items from the library.

QuickBus access allows customers to compare bus ticket prices via FNB’s app. You can do that via the service’s website, but why click another link? It’ll provide access to more than 6,500 African destinations, and FNB’s customers will also be eligible for discounts — perhaps the most important bit of this whole thing. Trips can be edited or refunded via the app.