ABSA has ******** codes of Practice

ABSA bank allows the user to easily open cheque accounts from your internet banking but there is no way in which they allow a person to close it again. In June I opened a cheque account using online banking just to attempt to transfer money to a foreign investment account with ABSA, as they said that that was the only way to make payments to the foreign investment account using internet banking according to ABSA staff. The payments was however not successful and I could never make any payments and therefore this cheque account was useless to me completely, meaning the only reason I had this account was due to ABSA's false advertising. ABSA does not offer ANY way whatsoever to close accounts for some silly reason and I assumed that should I remove the account from my internet banking and should the account run out of funds and they fail to take monthly fees that the account will be closed. ABSA did not allow me to close the account whilst it was in good standing. Instead they charge a fine of more than a hundred rand for each time that they could not withdraw their service fees to the point where they sent me threatening messages that I owe them almost five hundred rand for having a useless cheque account that could not perform the function which they advertised that it would perform. Regarding payments to the foreign investment account, I have went as far as contacting IT administrators of ABSA but to no avail, of all this I have proof in my emails. What I basically learnt from this experience is that ABSA has ******** ways of doing business as they lie about their products, after which they force you in their own little way to keep their product and they charge you, and FINE YOU for not using their product even though their product does not perform the advertised function. I have spoken with ABSA representatives on the phone regarding this cheque account, which told me that they will not allow me to close the cheque account because I owe money due to the fines they charged me for not using their broken product. I have had savings accounts with ABSA from when it was Volkskas bank and I have a credit account which I am using very frequently but after this I feel betrayed by ABSA and I feel that my trust in this company is broken. I will close all my accounts with ABSA (If they will allow me to) and move my business elsewhere. They are exhibiting anti competitive behavior by trying to force their customers into situations where they have no choice but to pay. I do not see myself paying this fines for not using their broken product and I will be leaving ABSA banking soon.