Bye bye FNB

I’m busy sitting at FNB right now waiting to close all of my accounts. I have been with FNB for over a decade now, and the reason I join was that I was just starting up my business and standard bank refused to give me a cheque account without payslips. FNB on the other hand had faith in me and gave me the cheque account I needed to get started. It feels good when a bank shows some faith in you. But much has changed since then. FNB harassed me for years to get a credit card and as I didn’t want to get into debt I kept declining the offer. Eventually in 2020 I was in the market to buy my first home but needed to build a credit history. FNB refused to give me a credit card and I fought with them for three months as they couldn’t give me an answer as to why they couldn’t issue me with one. I eventually got a call from FNB’s credit department who informed me that they would not be able to issue me with a credit card even though I had previous had an overdraft facility with them. I went to ABSA and they checked their system and said that they had never seen anyone with such a clean record and immediately issued me with a credit card even though I didn’t even bank with them. I found a house that I wanted to purchase 6 months later and Absa was the quickest to give me multiple home loan offers. FNB basically audited me and made me get employment contract letters from my employers, took the longest to give me an offer and also gave me the worst offer out of all of the big S.A banks. Also prior to receiving their offer I went into the bank personally to get advice on a home load and the business manager at the branch was extremely rude to me and said that I should just make use of their app. Since then I have moved all of my accounts across to Absa who is treating me very well.

When I bank I don’t want speak to an App, I want to speak to a human and I want to be treat with respect especially when all my saving are with a bank and I have been with them for so long.

The irony of this story is that FNB treated me like gold when I was just starting out and had no money, and now they let their broken algorithms dictate people future.

I have just walked out the bank and the teller was so very polite and helpful in helping me close all of my accounts.

Bye bye FNB

Nate