IF YOU ARE AN ATTORNEY CONSIDERING OPENING YOUR TRUST AND BUSINESS ACCOUNT WITH FNB - STAY VERY FAR AWAY!

I have opened a business account with FNB about 3,5 years ago in 2021 and what a profound disapointment it has been from the get go.

I am an attorney and had converted my practice from a sole proprietor to an incorporated company a couple of months after I opened the account. At the time I opened my trust and business account (an attorney always has at least one trust and one business account) I told them I would be doing the conversion and the branch consultant who assisted me advised me that this was not going to be a problem as the accounts can be transferred from me to the incorporated company once the company is registered.

So I opened the trust and business accounts but when I tried to have it transferred to my newly registered incorporated company I was told that it was not possible. I was outraged and after being sent to a fro I ended up laying a complaint with Hello Peter regarding the issue out of pure frustration. Eventually the account was transferred to my incorporated company by agreement between myself, FNB and the company and that was that.

The issue I am still having though is that no matter how many times I call or how many e-mails I send or how many times I try to engage the advisor on my business and trust accounts the monthly trust account statements still reflect the name of the sole proprietorship and until last month it also reflected the incorrect billing address. I have been lucky enough to have the information on the business account statements corrected although this also came after numerous calls and e-mails and follow-ups with the bank.

The fact that my trust account statements still reflect the name of the sole proprietorship is curious because whenever I give my account details with the bank telephonically (so that they can verify me) the details on the system is correct as it reflects the details of the incorporated company. So, whoever is trying to assist me at the bank can never understand what the hell my problem is. It really takes them a while to understand that the information on the system is correct but the information on my statement is not.

I have been in contact with the consultant on my account for two months to have the issue resolved after I was advised by him that it takes about two working days for the information to be corrected. He has managed to have the address on the statement corrected but not the name.

I expect a lot of promises from FNB that they will have the issue resolved (as I always do) but what will I find come January when the next statement is issued?