Unauthorised Account Opening During Funeral Policy Enquiry

This morning I visited African Bank, Riebeek Street branch in Cape Town, to enquire about taking out a funeral policy. While being assisted, I asked the consultant to provide a quotation for a funeral policy so I could see how much it would cost. During this process, she repeatedly asked me to place my right and left thumbs on the device. At the time, I was not aware that this was being done to open a savings account in my name, and I was never informed or asked for consent to do so.

I later realised that I did not have my nieces’ and nephews’ dates of birth, so I informed the consultant that I would return during my lunch break once I had obtained the required information so that we could finalise the funeral policy.

It was only afterwards that I discovered that a savings account had already been opened in my name without my knowledge or consent. When I questioned the consultant via WhatsApp, she stated that opening a savings account is part of the funeral policy process and that the system automatically opens it. This was never explained to me at the time. She also mentioned that she was stressed because another branch had opened, which I do not believe should have affected the service I received.

At the time of the process, I was distracted while trying to obtain the required dates of birth on my phone. I received multiple pop-up messages and was instructed to simply press “1”, without being given an opportunity to read or understand what I was authorising. I believe this situation was handled improperly and that advantage was taken of my distraction.

I am extremely unhappy with the service I received. African Bank was recommended to me, but this experience has left me very dissatisfied, and I no longer wish to proceed with any services from the bank.