STAY CLEAR FROM ABSA!

Anyone considering ABSA for their business - from personal experience STAY AWAY! Choose another bank if you can. You are better off at another bank even if the interest rate is slightly higher. It is ABSA's business to serve the rich and the masses, not you as an individual. Lack of individual client service will cost you more in the long run. By now, I'm an expert on ABSA's poor customer service.

Here's what happened to me recently. As a result of my poor health, I was compelled to go under debt review due to medical costs taking a heavy toll on my finances (and my emotional health). Last year, I started working at Capitec, which has great client service. Clients are treated as individuals, not as numbers. Whenever you feel unsatisfied with Capitec's service, please contact your nearest branch or via email at *** or call the 24-hour Client Care Centre at ***. There is an immediate and effective response to complaints.

I am in a much better financial position after I started working at Capitec. I finalized payments to creditors (excluding the ABSA Home Loan) which will continue as per normal before debt review. When you finalize payments to creditors and get your clearance certificate that all creditor accounts are settled, these accounts are all closed. One of these accounts was my ABSA Cheque account which had an overdraft facility. This account was also closed immediately after the clearance certificate was issued. On my part, I ensured my bond account's monthly installment was paid diligently via EFT directly to the bond account.

Here's the clincher, our friends at ABSA tried to deduct the monthly installment for the ABSA Home Loan from my CLOSED NON-EXISTENT SUSPENDED Cheque account - which is absurd. While ABSA closed the account, they still deducted the installment from a closed account?

In spite of the manual EFT's, ABSA completely ignored the manual EFT's and informed Credit Berea that my ABSA Home Loan account was 3 months overdue!!!!!! Due to failure of payment from my SUSPENDED (by ABSA) cheque account.

What makes it even worse, before I started debt review the installment were not paid from my ABSA cheque account but from another account. So ABSA placed a debit order not only on a suspended account but also the incorrect account!

An investigation began and after more than a month ABSA admitted they f-upped. However, that means **** to me because my credit status remains **** with an overdue amount on my ABSA Home Loan account. Meanwhile, the car price is now reduced by R35000. Suddenly, it's a really great car deal. ABSA sent me a letter stating that they *****ed up and I attempted to apply for vehicle finance at different banks using this letter, but I was turned down because my credit status still shows an overdue amount on my home loan. One bank agreed to finance the car, but at an outrageous interest rate. Please keep in mind that I just finished my debt review this year. I value every penny. The cost of my medical care is rising as my health deteriorates.

ABSA denied my application for vehicle financing, and I don't know whether to find it ridiculously funny or absolutely infuriating!

ABSA doesn't care. ABSA declined vehicle finance, and I am indirectly losing R35 000 because such a deal is hard to come by and the car now has other potential buyers.

Considering their own mistake, ABSA might want to compensate and assist THEIR OWN CLIENT in obtaining vehicle finance. Unfortunately, DEAR ABSA CLIENT, YOU ARE JUST ANOTHER NUMBER.

Something like this will never happen at Capitec Bank. Be wise and think twice. Steer away from ABSA if you can.