FNB/Cash passport shocking service

On Tuesday the 14th May, I collected my FNB Cash passport from the FNB Blue Route Tokai branch in Cape Town. I pre-ordered this on Saturday the 11th May and requested for 2 currencies to be loaded (GBP and Euro’s) on the same card. It stated that up to 4 currencies could be loaded. The amount was around R38, 000 across the 2 different currencies and this would be for both my wife and my family spending costs over the 3 weeks holiday.

I submitted my travel documents online using the as requested which confirmed my flight date as the 17th June AND I told the cashier at the FNB branch where I collected the details of my flight date. Initially he was struggling to load the 2 different currencies and wanted to charge me for 2 separate cards, but said he managed to arrange for both to be on the same card and said the 2nd R85 card fee would be reversed. He also assured me the card would be activated before my travels.

Upon arriving in London on the 18th June I tried to purchase something in Heathrow airport and the card was declined. My wife had to purchase sim cards (3 x 15 GBP each) and refreshments/lunch on the Saturday. I immediately called the helpline to which they said they would flag as urgent as I was travelling and didn’t have access to the funds. Again I remind you that R38, 000 was no longer in my FNB account OR reflecting on the card so I had no access to this while already in London. I was asked to email the branch name and location of the card purchase, receipt for the load, photo of id, current address, mother ****en name, card details etc etc to ********** which I did to which I received the reply – ‘’ The response to your concern requires provision of sensitive customer and/or account information. Due to data protection, we are unable to discuss any account-specific queries through email correspondence’’.

This was inconvenient to say the least without having proper facilities to be able to do this AND had to skip pre planned trips and excursions while we didn’t have the funds.

I spent the next 4 days calling the help line number in which it was escalated to 2 different managers (Rachel in the Philippines being the final one) while all this time I still didn’t have access to my funds and the card was STILL not activated. Eventually on the 4th day of my travels and after hours on the phone with no results and STILL having no card activation and access to my allocated funds I INSISTED on Rachel (call centre manager) conference calling to Johannesburg. We spoke to a gentleman who said he called my office the day before (20th May) to check if I was travelling. This seems absurd to me as FNB had my flight ticket reflecting I had flown 3 days earlier. I wasn’t on international roaming so didn’t have access to any calls either but didn’t receive any emails from FNB either. The card was then finally activated on the 21 May 4 days after flying.

I can’t screenshot the activity on the cashpassport app, but if you check the account, my ‘activity’ only begins on the 21 May where the card was activated and the funds loaded. I asked the gentleman to email me (again confirming my email address) as to what had gone wrong which I still have not received. During this time (17th May – 21 May) my wife and family had to fund everything which we did not budget for meaning we incurred costs across the difference family members bank accounts. This caused an incredible amount of stress and tension over what was meant to be our holiday. We were limited to what we could afford to do which essentially cost me a great deal financially and a loss of 4 days international holiday.