Good people. Slimy bank. Not for responsible savers or investors.

Let’s start this review by stating, that I had the most pleasant experience with their professional and kind phone service operators. Honestly. No sarcasm.

It's such a shame that African Bank get this part right where most businesses fail, and it can't be trusted to do the one thing it is supposed to: Be a trustworthy bank.

Let me take you on my journey.

I invested money in their 32 Notice deposit account in June 2023. The interest seemed quite reasonable, and it looked like a good place to store some funds in the short term while we await the events that would require those funds.

November 2023, sooner than expected, we got the good news that we can proceed with the matters the funds were intended for and I made my withdrawal with a timely notice period (I knew I would need to wait 32 days, it’s in the account name). The expectation was to get the funds early December 2023.

Now, a little background is needed: I only use African bank for the investment accounts, it is not my day-to-day account (and to be honest, after this experience, will never be up for consideration as well). No financial traffic flowed through it. Getting a transactional account is part of the process of opening an investment (If I remember correctly, you need to create it before opening up investments. As a default, the account African Bank pays out their investments to is this transactional account. Awesomeness, no issues up to this point.

I made the withdrawal waited 32 days. no communications over that period and to be honest, none were expected. However, after I while, the radio silence included a lack of comms over the payment being made as well. I constantly checked in on my investments and I kept scanning for the amount I knew should be paid out to me. The original investment account has been closed, so the transaction did take place. I assumed that I was maybe a little hasty, or I'm not keeping proper track of the calendar. 32 days is a lot of days to lose track of, so I remained patient.

Finally, I caved, and I called their call center. An act I was not so secretly dreading. To my surprise the waiting times was short, the people friendly and informed (don’t lie, you would have been surprised as well).

Jefferey (man of the match) was asked to check whether the payment has been made or whether I just forgot the correct date. In a kind manner he informed me that I was not dumb, 32 days is a long time and no I was not crazy. The payment has in fact been made. You would think I would be happy right? No. I could not see the money. Turns out, the payment has been made. BUT, shocker, into a closed account of mine. Queue my confused anger.

The first concern was where the money is now. It is a large enough sum that I did not want to lose it. Jeffery from investments was kind, professional and to the point and he told me he would get the money back. To his team's credit (African bank can only take credit for their employment) they took the action they could. The transaction was reversed, and I could see it back in an investment account. Sigh of relief. Buuuuutttt…you can see this coming, can’t you? Let’s build the suspense…

I needed that money now. There was a reason I withdrew the money in a timely manner. Deadlines are deadlines and my funds needs to be available immediately. I was responsible and I did everything right for that reason. But, because the transaction was reversed, my money was back into a 32 Notice account. So, to get the money, I need to…yes. Give 32 days’ notice. NOT an option anymore.

I nicely asked the team whether they can withdraw the money from my account without a penalty, seeing that I had nothing to do with the error the bank made. I also had a burning question. How was the money paid into a deleted account in the first place? I certainly did not delete it.

Jefferey said he will revert.

And he did (give that man a raise). But, Jefferey gave me bad news. My case has been evaluated by faceless people and the following conclusion was drawn: The withdrawal did not fail because of a system issue. I could have intervened. The penalty is payable by me.

I was stumped and deeply, deeply angry.

Trying not to make Jefferey the target of my anger, I asked him HOW THE F THE MONEY WAS PAID INTO A DELETED ACCOUNT. The answer was simple: Upon investigation, the system automatically deleted my transactional account to which the money would have been paid out to. There was no traffic on it and that was reason enough. That same faceless system did NOT send me a notice of account closure, nor did I receive a call from the bank to warn me thereof.

This of course made me angrier, and I had to excuse myself before proceeding with the conversation. You can probably see why but lets summarise.

I invested money for safe keeping by a BANK. I withdrew money and this money was destined for a transactional account I had with African Bank. Without notice, the bank deleted my account and still paid out the investment to a deleted account, without any notice of the end destination no longer existing, or checking that it exists before payment. This itself is a MAJOR concern. The good thing was we rescued the money. BUT I must pay penalties for making an immediate withdrawal because it was not due to a system failure.

I'm going to repeat that. NOT A SYSTEM failure. I get angry even typing this review to be honest.

The system did not check a destination of my investment upon payment, the system did not give me notice for the invalid destination nor did the system ask to delete the account I specified it should be paid into (Imagine this was an account with your money in it). The system judged the account to be inactive (I would argue, putting it as a destination for an investment would constitute the account still being considered active, but anyways). The system deleted the account. I AM PAYING AFRICAN BANK MONEY BECAUSE IT WAS MY FAULT. More money than the interest I earned mind you.

I tried to appeal, Jefferey logged my request for consideration to absolve the penalty (no luck, obviously - still my fault) and logged a complaint with a faceless system. Apart from a bland SMS to tell me that I did indeed complain, no success.

My advice is to stay away from this silly bank. You have a multitude of better options out there. Your mattress for example. Or keeping your money in a check account with 0% interest and giving a car guard a Christmas bonus. You would have the same amount of money left, but there is much less anger, and more joy in the world (Please note I’m not an authorized financial services provider. Shockingly, African Bank is).

Ultimately, African Bank acted more like a politician than a bank. It stole money and hid behind the face of people, who proudly and with dignity are trying to deliver great customer service. Like with politicians, I am fed up with this sort of incompetence. Like with politicians, I’m angrier that they can't deliver services that their great staff can be proud of.

It is truly and shockingly shameful.