FICA department doesn't communicate well and threatens to lock out accounts.

I was transferred over from a Discovery Credit Card at FNB to Discovery's own bank. Most things are good but their FICA department are terrible. In October, they email me to request my proof of address, passport and permanent resident certificate. I send those three items back to them the same day. No acknowledgement that they had received them but I assumed they had as I heard nothing more.

Then last month they email me asking for my new passport as my old one had expired. I rep**** to that email the same day and sent my new passport. Again, no confirmation that they had received it but I assumed all was good. Then I start getting these emails and SMSes 'We still need to verfiy some of your personal info. Respond to the email from *** or call...' But I have responded to the two emails they have sent me with everything they asked for. I log into my bank profile on the web and see that I need to update my salarly info. I do that and I have no more messages in my profile.

Then today I get an SMS stating that 'if we can't verify your personal info, we'll lock your account. Respond to an email from *** or call'. Same thing on email so I reply to *** and ask for somebody to call me. I get an automated reply saying that I need to phone their 0800 number. I phone that and the call centre agent says that they don't have access to FICA information. I can't speak to the FICA department but she will speak to them on my behalf while I wait on the line. That happens and they tell me (via the agent) that they don't have a proof of address. Yet, I sent them this, at their request, in October via email. The agent speak to the FICA department. 'My passport is out of date'. But it's not. They contacted me last month and I sent them a copy of my updated passport. 'Can I speak to a FICA person?'. Sure, the agent says she will transfer me.

But it's not a FICA person, she has transferred me to another agent in the credit card division. She informs me that FICA personnel don't talk to customers. The credit card agent escalated the situation up the manager in FICA while I stayed on hold. She offered to call me back but I have had so many call centres say that to me and then never call me back I said I would rather hold. After 50 minutes of being on the line, I get an email from *** stating that they have received my FICA documents and updated my record'. So apparently now I wasn't going to be locked out of my account.

The credit card agent then confirmed this and after 50 minutes on the call trying to ensure that FICA fixed their own mess, asked if I would like to take a short survey. My goodness. I thought Discovery Bank was meant to be innovative. All I got was cold emails and SMSes from a faceless FICA department that had an open case with me since January (five months ago). A department that don't answer emails and won't speak to you to fix their own mess and threaten to lock you out of your own credit card. Terrible.

If you are a foreigner in SA, this is not the Bank for you. Terrible experience, unlike Alan Grey, FNB, Standard Bank who all updated my FICA records with them without any of this prolonged process and cold comms.