How Absa treats widowed mothers
I believe it was in August 2018 my husband contacted Absa regarding his salary being paid in date changing to change all his debit orders to a different date of which Absa has a recording. They told him to send an email and on 6 November they emailed him and said his life insurance policy had automatically been cancelled because of non payment for 2 months and he could either pay the 2 extra installments or take out a new policy. He could not afford to pay 2 extra installments and was very angry and sent them an email to cancel absolutely everything with Absa. Nobody informed him before then that the installments has not been paid and in the email it also says that he did email which absa says they did'nt get. He had bipolar disorder and committed suicide on 1 December 2018. Absa refused to pay the life insurance money due to the fact that he did'nt pay it because of their incompetence. A policy we had from 2013 and before then not a single payment was missed. This has forced me to sell my house as the entire amount borrowed from absa was still outstanding on the house and I could'nt afford it as I am an unemployed single mother who does'nt even have a place to live when I have to move out of my house. Now I have to pay another R23025.54 in interest on the house before the people who bought it's bond can be registered. I have paid absolutely all the other debt with the little pension money I got and fixed the house up which Absa (surprise surprise) also refused to pay out on another claim in the past so I could sell the house. All this bank cares about is where its next profit is going to come from so they can enrich someone somewhere who never has to work again a day in their lives a little more. Not about the widowed mother who does'nt know how she's going to keep a roof over her child's head yet or feed them. I have decided to take the claim to the ombudsman as I still have time left and then social media. At first I just wanted to let it go just so I could get all of this done with and to avoid extra pain, but people needs to be made aware of what type of institution they are dealing with.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Kindly provide us with the specific policy number and whether it was under your name or hubby's name of which we will need his ID number to log a formal complaint for investigation. We could not find any life policy using your ID number. Also use the private reply for me to see the details. We will investigate the matter and furnish feedback shortly.
Kind regards
Nthabiseng Sibande
Customer Value ManagementAbsa Bank Ltd
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Kindly provide us with the specific policy number and whether it was under your name or hubby's name of which we will need his ID number to log a formal complaint for investigation. We could not find any life policy using your ID number. Also use the private reply for me to see the details. We will investigate the matter and furnish feedback shortly.
Kind regards
Nthabiseng Sibande
Customer Value ManagementAbsa Bank Ltd
