FNB - what kind of cruel bank is this?

This weekend FNB blocked both my credit and debit cards. I was told the reason for blocking was “suspicious activity”, and that it will take up to 48 hours for the cards to be unblocked! I was instructed to send email to ********** in order to have my international limits lifted.

I have called the customer care both regular and forex multiple times but they kept answering all my questions with “It will be unblocked in 48 hours.” 48 Hours has now passed and still no response or resolution to my query. After contacting customer care again, I was told that they will re-send the request and it will take another 48h for my cards to be unblocked. To my question what happens if in 48h there is still no resolution the answer was that they will send another request. In the meantime I am stuck in the foreign country with two children with no funds. We are talking about my own money that i was denied access to due to no fault of my own.

The blocking of the cards put me in extremely difficult position. I was spending weekend in Netherlands taking debit card with me, and i left my 17 year old daughter in Oslo, Norway with the credit card. FNB left me, in sensitive circumstances, without money before verifying first – no email, no message on the app. Imagine yourself in foreign country without money, away from the children, who are also without money. This is simply not okay.

From my accounts, FNB can clearly see that i currently reside and spend my money in Norway and Europe and that there is no reason to suddenly suspect *****. Especially after I called and confirmed that there is no ***** taking place and that I am stuck in the foreign country with two children with no funds.

I am now thinking that this will never be resolved and that i will have to move all my funds to a different bank.