FNB Denies Old Pensioner the Promised Grace Period to Withdraw her Matured Fixed Deposit

<p>My mother Mrs Scholtz has a fixed deposit at FNB which matured on 17 July 2016. Because she was in the midst of moving and had a sick husband, she called her branch to ask if it was essential to go to the bank on that day if she wished to close the account and withdraw the money. They said no need to worry, there was a grace period of a week.</p> <p>On 22 July I accompanied her to FNB Lifestyle Centre Branch, Centurion . She told the lady (Precious) about the telephone call and the reasons for her needing the money now, being her husband's quickly deteriorating health and their move to an old age home. She requested that it be paid into her ABSA account. Precious made a printout of the instruction, asked Mrs Scholtz to check the acccount number and to sign next to it. </p> <p>However, no funds from FNB arrived in the ABSA account and a few days ago my mother received a letter from FNB thanking her for reinvesting! Today we took the first opportunity to go back to FNB to enquire what happened to her earlier request. </p> <p>They said my mother signed an instruction to pay money to the ABSA account a year later - who on earth would go to the trouble of sitting in the bank for an hour and a half to do that?? Apparantly Precious was supposed to change the maturity date, which the system had already moved on to 17 July 2017. And apparantly the 85-year-old customer was supposed to link the maturity date (printed BEFORE "reason for closing") not to identifying the specific deposit, but to the date of payment to the ABSA account (printed in the next paragraph under a new heading), and to tell the FNB consultant that it was incorrect. The form contained words like "function: maturity closeout", so the normal customer would not have realised the above obscure meaning of the maturity date. When my mom asked when the money will become available, Precious even said within a few days, because there is usually a 2-3 day delay to a different bank.</p> <p>No matter how we explained her original oral instruction and intentions of 22 July, Precious and the manager both refused to admit or take any responsibility for the mistake. To get the money, a "new" request had to be done, which was treated as an "early"(!) withdrawal of a fixed deposit maturing in 12 months, resulting in a penalty fee of over R2400. For a pensioner earning a monthly pension of R1700, who made every effort to avoid any problems and losses, this is an undeserved blow. </p> <p>"How can we help you?" By having a heart, maybe?</p> <p> </p>