Blacklisting unfairly and then not wanting to help do away with the bad credit rating.

<p>First of all, I am a small business owner and it is of utmost importance to keep my credit rating as best I can. Investors look at personal credit ratings before they make a decision to fund you.</p> <p> </p> <p>I had opened up a perosnal loan with ABSA a few years back to fund my small IT startup business. In March I moved house, where the new owners did a credit check and advised me that I had a bad credit record. They sent me the analysis and my ABSA personal loan was stated as being badly repaid for over a year. According to me I had money available in that account every month for the Debit Orders to go off. It came under my attention that ABSA couldnt process the Debit Order for some reason, and I was never contacted about it. However, every other month since the debit orders were going off as per normal.</p> <p> </p> <p>In April I contacted ABSA stating that I would like to catch up the outstanding payment. We agreed on a half and half payment over the following 2 months. Their e-mail reads as follows:</p> <p> </p> <p>"Good day Mr Ra Venter</p> <p> </p> <p>Please be advised as per telephonic conversation you should make two payments via debit to loan account worth R 4040.00 for two months, 25 April 2016 being the first and 25 May 2016 being the last.</p> <p> </p> <p>Please note that if both payments are kept the credit bureau will update accordingly."</p> <p> </p> <p>The first month ABSA deducted the full amount in one go. They notified me that they will correct the problem. They ABSA kept on phoning me every day telling me that my account was in arrears, everytime of which I tell them I have already made a payment arrangement and I am keeping to my end. They told me that "on the system they cannot take my details off of the calling list, so I would get calls until the last payment of the arrangement was met". I'm sure you can Imgine getting a call every second day or so telling you that your account is in arrears is not very pleasant to say the least, Especially if you are at work, where they are disturbing you when you are trying to earn the money that you have to pay THEM.</p> <p> </p> <p>So after the 2 month of the agreement I still kept on getting calls that my account was in arrears. Apparently the first months payment that they had stuffed up was totally reversed and it showed that I had not made payment AGAIN. AGAIN a mistake that ABSA made and they make out as if I was the one not making payment. So the agreement was only paid up after 3 months.</p> <p> </p> <p>After the 3 months, ABSA took the liberty of not changing the Debit ordwer back to the original amount and the debit order went on as 'one and a half months payment'. They had the cheek to phone me after that and ask me if I am happy with the payment having stayed the same. I told them no, they need to change it back to what it was, which I will still see if they did change it.</p> <p> </p> <p>All this been done, I still sit with the bad credit rating at the credit bureau. I phoned the collections department to find out how I can rectify my credit rating after have been unfairly reported to them. The lady at the collections department advised me to go to a brach where they could help me. More running around for something that ABSA had done wrong initially. Needless to say I left WORK to go to a branch. At the reception counter at Park Station the lady told me to speak to the Branch Manager. The Branch Manager unsurprizingly told me that I need a letter from the same people whom I made the payment arrangement with to say that I have caught up with my payments. Then they could take it to a consultant at the branch and they can process it and in 2 months time my account will be cleared at the credit bureau. </p> <p> </p> <p>The following day I called the collections department and asked them for a letter or confirmation email to say that I have repaid the mess that ABSA had initially started with. They plainly said to me that they are not allowed to send these kind of letters, and did not offer any advise as to how I can clear my record.</p> <p> </p> <p>So now I sit with a bad credit record that ABSA reported me for which was a problem on their part in the first place, of which they are not willing to help me with clearing. As I stated before, I am a small business owner, which I am trying my best to make a success of. ABSA has been a waste of time and money in the whole process of something that could have been resolved with a simple call or email instead of affecting my credit record and not wanting to lift a finger to resolve.</p> <p> </p> <p>After all of which I still dont know how to clear.</p> <p> </p> <p>Such a bad experience!!!!</p> <p> </p> <p>Many of my close friends work for banks and it is always a hot topic of conversation when we get together. Needless to say, none of them will be taking their business to ABSA in the near future.</p>