Capitec Debit order never loaded — credit card frozen, couldn't pay rent

In December we were approved for a 6-month personal loan with Capitec, and we were advised by their staff to transfer our excess funds into our Capitec credit card to help improve our credit score. We followed this advice in good faith.

What we were not told is that the debit order for the personal loan repayments was never actually set up. There is no debit order visible on the banking app — nothing was loaded to go off on the 1st of the month as promised. As a result, our account fell into arrears without us even knowing, and Capitec placed a hold on our credit card without any prior notification.

Because all our surplus funds were sitting in the Capitec credit card — on their own recommendation — we had no access to money when the freeze was app****. This left us unable to pay our rent, and we were forced to use our previously paid-up Nedbank credit card just to cover this month's rent. We are now carrying unnecessary debt on another card because of Capitec's internal failure.

Capitec markets itself as a bank that will simplify your finances and make your life better. In our experience, they made promises they could not keep, failed to set up a basic debit order, and then penalised us for their own administrative error — leaving us in a worse financial position than when we started.

After a heated call with their customer care line, we were eventually advised that they will unfreeze the account and settle the loan as per our instruction. While we appreciate that they are now acting, it should never have come to this — no client should have to fight this hard to fix a problem caused entirely by the bank's own failure to load a debit order.

We will be monitoring closely to ensure they follow through on this commitment. Capitec still needs to take full accountability, reverse any adverse credit listings, and ensure this does not happen to other clients.