I Am/Was Misled With Interest Rate Negotiations

Rule Number 1. Before you sign on that personal loan agreement, make sure to have everything in record and if possible in writing.

I took a personal loan with this bank back in January 2025 at Vaal Mall Branch. I tried negotiating my interest rate which stood at 23.90% and was high but better than others. (My credit score is very good and close to excellent, hovering above 650 on ClearScore)

I tried negotiating this interest rate on the spot with the gentleman who was assisting me and he told me I would need to make at least a years payments so that the bank can have data and know how I pay and I should return in the new year to renegotiate my interest rate.

A year and a few months passed. I tried doing that in the app I was told “The interest rate can only be reviewed prior to the processing of the first debit order on the account. Once app****, the interest rate cannot be amended.” Totally the opposite of what I was told face to face when I was applying for this loan. I sent emails and I was told the same thing but the issue of what I was told when I app**** is not mentioned at all.

Now I am querying who is right and who is wrong between the people on the email and the gentleman who assisted me with the loan because 1 of them misled me or is misleading me.

Can this be a trick the bank is using for us to sign loans that have higher interest rates and tell us we will be able to review them in the following year knowing very well that, they will tell us a different story when that happens? Has anyone faced a similar issue because if I am not the only person, then it would mean they are used to doing this. No wonder every single time these banks are forever on profit because of shenanigans like these.

FNB, the question still remains Was I misled when I was applying for this loan or am I being misled now? Did the gentleman at Vaal Mall branch sell me lies? phela false advertising is ******* in South Africa. You can’t say this today, and tomorrow when I try to implement what you have said, you now change the goalposts, that is very *********.