Absa error on investment account, 8+ months of lost Rewards, and failed complaints process

I've been a Absa customer for my whole life (+30 years), and currently a premium account holder and member of Absa Rewards. Since late 2025 I have been struggling with an unresolved issue that Absa has repeatedly mishandled.

Absa caused my Future Plan / savings investment account (ending 6677) to go into a small negative balance of about R80, after I had requested and received a full payout and closure of that account. I received no warning or explanation at the time that the account went into negative or why..

This negative balance then silently caused my Absa Rewards to stop paying on my transactions for months. I only discovered this after noticing that my Rewards earnings had dropped to zero while I continued to use my Absa card at Rewards partners.

When I queried this (starting November 2025), Absa Rewards confirmed multiple times that the “not in good standing” status of the 6677 account was the reason my Rewards were blocked. However:

- No one could explain why the account went negative after a full payout.

- I tried to pay in the R80 myself, but the system did not allow me to do so.

- At some point Absa processed a debit entry to bring the balance back to positive, without informing me or explaining why this had happened in the first place. It looked like an attempt to fix their own error quietly behind the scenes.

Despite this, I have still not been compensated for the months of Rewards I lost, nor have I had a clear confirmation that my Rewards are now correctly accruing.

Over the last 6–8 months (and possibly longer), I have received no Absa Rewards on my qualifying transactions, even though I continue to pay fees for my account and card. I have repeatedly asked Absa to:

- Investigate and confirm the original cause of the negative balance on the investment account.

- Confirm that this was Absa’s error, not mine.

- Calculate and pay the full backdated Absa Rewards I should have earned during the period affected.

- Confirm that Rewards are now being correctly credited going forward.

Instead, Absa has:

- Opened and closed multiple complaint cases (including C‑***0, C‑***2 and C***8 - and probably an extra 5 queries I had to log/contact them), often prematurely.

- Repeatedly promised feedback “within 2–3 working days” or by specific dates, and then gone silent.

- Bounced me between departments (Absa Rewards, Complaints Resolution, Everyday Banking, Savings & Investments) and told me to contact various internal teams to get confirmations that Absa should obtain themselves.

This is unacceptable. Absa created the negative balance, attempted to reverse it without owning up to the error or its consequences, and has failed to resolve the impact on my Rewards despite months of escalations, phone calls and emails.

What I want Absa to do:

1. Provide a clear, written explanation of how and why my investment account ended up in a negative balance after closure and payout, and why a subsequent debit was processed to bring it positive again.

2. Confirm whether this was an Absa error.

3. Calculate and credit the full value of all Absa Rewards I should have earned on my transactions during the period when the account was incorrectly treated as “not in good standing”, and any time thereafter when Rewards still did not accrue.

4. Confirm in writing that my Rewards earning is now functioning correctly going forward.

5. Acknowledge in writing the poor handling of my complaints and the repeated failure to meet their own promised feedback timelines.

At this point, I've lost all loyalty and ready to move to another bank - who already can provide me better rates on homeloan, monthly acc fees and better premium/private consultant and support services.