ABSA Handed me over for Debt collection on an account that they told me was closed

ABSA has handed me over for debt collection on a cheque account that they assured me was closed 3 times. The only "debt" outstanding was bank charges that was incurred during the time that I was made to believe that my account was closed.

I requested the closure of all my ABSA accounts and services at the beginning of August 2018. I spoke to an agent and my rewards, Credit card and cheque account were closed and confirmation was given to me on a telephone conversation.

Although all my accounts were moved as well, MTN was allowed to attempt a Debit order on my account which obviously did not go through as there was not money in the account. I paid MTN manually and corrected their mistake with them.

So I spoke to an ABSA Agent again asking why my account was not closed. He told me they do not close accounts over the phone even though I was assured that mine was closed during the previous conversation. Eventually he also agreed to close the account for me. I was again assured that my account is now closed.

In December a payment was paid into my ABSA account from Discovery claim. The payment should have been rejected since my account was supposed to be closed. The R940 was not rejected and I had to speak to another ABSA agent who told me my account was still open and can not be closed.

After email correspondence between me and 5 ABSA employees, looking to resolve this, another agent spoke to me on the phone. He also assured me that the amount of bank changes that have accrued has been canceled and that my account is finally closed.

This is when things got bad. I have had an "Attorney" company called MBD phoning me from February asking me to make the full R1199 payment for my arrears account (this excluded the R940 already paid from Discovery). I have been in to the bank where the manager at Kloof branch was unable to do anything to help. I was told that there is nothing ABSA can do for me. I have also been blocked from the 5 email addresses that I used in December.

I have even tried to pay the amount the MBD stipulated - and now the MBD agents are changing the conditions requesting more money.

The MBD agents are extremely rude and of absolutely no help. Every time I speak with them they contradict previous conversations. They are definitely not very educated let alone attorneys.

I have no idea how to resolve this as my credit rating is now damaged in the process.

I could pay the remaining R240 and hope that MBD really would remove the credit. I doubt that they will honor the agreement as I am still not sure who they really are. Alternatively I could take this to court - for R240!

ABSA has **** to me outright and now they do not want to help resolve this. This lack of service is the reason that I moved my account in the first place.