Payment holiday COVID19 - STILL DEBITED ME

FNB was quick to announce that they would be assisting their clients with payment holidays for those affected by COVID19, but that seems to be more of a PR stunt than something FNB actually wants to do.

I was placed on unpaid leave on Friday 1 May and on Monday 4 May I contacted my private banker to take the payment holiday on my FNB bond.

I filled in all the forms, sent a letter from my company that informed the bank that I was on unpaid leave until further notice, attached my payslip, sent the breakdown of all my expenses and sent everything through on 5 May to my private banker.

I was told by my private banker that it would take 15 working days. I emailed my private banker a week later to follow up on progress to enaure everything had been submitted but no reply, I called her everyday for about a week with no answer, she didnt return any of my voice mails, i sent multiple emails with no reply, i contacted your sevice suit and sat on hold for god knows how long just to be told that my private banker would get hold of me.

She never called bavk. I sent my private banker a harsh mail explaining to her that i was unhappy with the service and i need to ensure i dont get debited my FNB homeloan. The reply i got was that she was not at work and she had informed me that it will take 15 working days.

This morning I see that my bond repayment has gone off!! After working carefully with my salary at the end of April, considering I'm not getting paid for May. I had money put aside so that i could afford buy food ect in June. Now thanks to FNB being unwilling to help I need to now make alternative plans to put food on the table.

Perhaps FNB should take a page out of ABSA's playboo**** To take a payment holiday with ABSA, they sent a sms to all clients stating that if you are in financial distress due to COVID19 you can put your ABSA payments on hold by simply replying "yes" to the SMS!!! 3 days later they had confirmation that their payment holiday had been implemented.

Absolutely disgusting service from FNB! One would think that in a global pandemic they would be more proactive. Useless private banker too.

Time to change to a bank that cares