****ed up bank

In 2012 I had opened a loan account with FNB with an instalment of approximately 2400 per month. I had borrowed R60,000.

During 2015, and after paying in about R82000 towards the loan, I had notified FNB that I was unable to pay the entire instalment of R2400 and offered to pay a reduced instalment. The bank had turned this down.

When I received my credit report I had found that I had two FNB loan accounts with FNB. Now my payments to FNB had stopped at the time because I could not afford it but, I wondered how the bank would give me an additional loan when the original loan was in arrears.

I notified the credit bureau that this was second loan was no my account and I had never opened it. I had submitted a dispute to the credit berau indicating that the second FNB loan account was not mine. I requested a copy of the loan contract from both FNB and the credit bureau. I received nothing. The credit bureau advised after twenty days that this is my account and it will remain open.

FNB responded this time indicating that in the year 2015, they had opened a new “legal” account for me but forgot to close my original account. I asked where is the documents that I had signed to have this new account opened, when did I give permission to have a new account opened on my behalf, where is the proof that I was notified that the new account was opened.

FNB had called it a “legal account” and claimed that a SMS was sent to me indicating that I had a new account number. I was upset because I did not receive any such notification and also I had already paid about R82000 towards the original R60000 loan that I had; This new loan account was opened with a balance of about R64000 which meant I would have to start all over with paying the bank.

I had requested proof that this so called SMS was sent to me and the delivery report sent to me was on excel and could be edited – it did not come on letterhead of the cell phone company.

Last week I received my free credit report and found that this legal account ********** 971153 was still with an open status and now has arears to the value of about R74000. I contact the credit bureau and they say there’s nothing they can do, I must contact FNB. I wrote to FNB and had no response.

I wrote to FNB and complained on hello peter. Irving Marshal had contacted me and indicated that he would not close the account that is in dispute. He claimed that the bank is allowed to create an account on behalf of a customer and its an internal process they followed.

I had asked him to send me the contract for the loan and he says there is nothing that I signed. I asked for the banks procedure / policy which indicate that the bank can create a new account for a client without the client (me) knowing about the new account and he confirmed that there was no such document that exists in FNB but they just follow this process. He further stated that the NCA allowed them to do this.

I did look at the NCA and found that the act does not allow the bank to create new accounts for customers without the customer knowing.

I also found that I am allowed to request documents from the bank including the telephone recordings. I wrote to Irving Marshall requesting the same but he blatantly denied me access to the information claiming that the information is for the banks internal usage.

I then wrote bank indicating that I am well within my rights to request this information and the act allows me to do so and he has not responded since. I would like the NCR to establish whether: 1. It was fair practice for FNB to open a new loan account on my name without my knowledge or permission. 2. Whether it was fair practice for the bank to claim that they had sent me a SMS indicating that they had opened a new account for me and provide proof within a excel spreadsheet. (I did not receive any SMS) 3. Whether the bank is acting fairly when they refuse to provide me with the recordings of our telephone conversations, 4. Whether the bank is acting fairly when they refuse to provide me with a copy of my original loan contract (not the account that FNB had opened). 5. Whether there is still any contractual obligation between myself and FNB due to the fact that the bank does not have any documentation in their possession.

If you find in my favour, please can you request that FNB closes the account ********** 971153 without prejudice.