FNB and Brooks & Luyt - a match made in hell

I had a credit card with FNB which I defaulted on, the balance on the credit card as at 27 Feb 2015 was R 82,667.55. The account was subsequently handed over to Brooks & Luyt for collection, as soon as I was contacted by Brooks & Luyt I entered into an arrangement to repay R 1,000 monthly. To date has been in place for at least 5 years with Brooks & Luyt deducting the amount monthly meaning the amount repaid to date is at least R 60,000.

For the past two years I’ve been struggling to get information on the account from either FNB or Brooks & Luyt.

From FNB I asked if they can breakdown the amount owed – R 82,667.55 - into; 1. The Principle Debt without interest or what was my credit limit at the time of default for both the straight and budget portion … of this how much had been taken up, 2. Interest charged on both, 3. Default administration charges 4. Collection costs 5. Additional charges and costs on the account as at 27 Feb 2015. Every time I requested this info I was given one excuse to another by call center agents why they can’t provide this info, calling Card Division or FNB Legal has proven just as pointless as I got sent from pillar to post without getting the info I need.

Trying to get information from Brooks & Luyt has proven just as frustrating. From them I requested a statement of payments since entering into an agreement to repay the debt. Every time I got promised the statement will be sent via e-mail but nothing ever comes through, to make things worse they lie about sending the e-mails and this has happened over 10 times but not a single e-mail with the info requested has ever been received.

Out of frustration I eventually went to FNB Bank City to try get answers, at the beginning I was told to deal with Card Division but I refused and explained no one takes accountability and as a result no progress is made. They have promised on more than one occasion to get info either from Card Division or Brooks & Luyt and each time a week passes then I have to follow up only to get more promises of information they are going to send and still nothing happens. The only document I’ve been given from either party is the statement showing the owing balance but no breakdown on info requested, no official letter I can take to the Ombudsman, nothing. It is almost as if the two party are acting with a common purpose of denying me the information I need to take the matter forward.

After insisting on getting answers from FNB Bank City I was shown a screen reflecting an outstanding amount of +/- R65,000 after paying R 1,000 monthly for 5 years meaning less than R 20,000 had gone to pay off the debt, they refused to provide a printed copy. The irritation with both companies is they know that this is information I am entitled to yet they behave as if there are no laws that govern how they conduct their business or threat customers. It has gotten to a point I want to have nothing to do with either company going forward.