Took them a year to contact me about non payment of an account I thought I was paying leading to thousands in interest

Why must it come to this point where I’m making public posts to get service? Why must I threaten with going to the NCR and Ombudsman to get a response and help? “How can we help you?” What slogan is this if you’re not going to help your customers? Why can’t a situation where fnb is clearly at fault be escalated?

It’s bull****! Fnb ****ed up by not contacting me to find out why my overdraft account which I thought was consolidated with my credit card and personal loan due to being under debt review was not being paid! I was paying my other account faithfully, even making lump sum payments, and it took fnb more than a year to contact me to ask why I haven’t paid! In the mean time R7000 in interest wracked up on that account! They tell me they contacted me on the 5th May 2021 about this but that’s a lie. They did not speak to me and the useless debt counsellor I fired definitely didn’t tell me anything if they spoke to him! Hence why I fired him to begin with because he clearly was not being helpful with any information!

So my question to fnb which remains unanswered is why if they spoke to me in May 2021 like they say did they not call me or sms or email or whatever in June 2021 to follow up? Then again in July 2021 and so forth? Why did they wait until July 2022?????? The only call before this recent one that took place was in May 2022 where I was told my repayments are increasing. That’s it. No mention of the account being in arrears or unpaid was mentioned. And definitely nothing about it being a separate account just separate figures. And definitely not that I needed to add this account as a beneficiary as it doesn’t reflect on the banking app like the credit card/personal loan does! There’s nothing on my banking app except one account that says personal loan! Not even credit card yet I was told it’s all there and they pick up my payments in that account for my credit card and they now tell me they don’t consolidate yet somehow this personal loan account covers my credit card? *****.

There’s nothing on my credit report which I check monthly and i haven’t according to this report missed a payment since last year for ANYTHING! Yet now out of the blue FnB comes and tells me im not paying and I’m wrong in expecting them to help me regarding this! Excuse me? I was told it was consolidated by that useless piece of **** debt counsellor, I have been paying what I believed I owed according to what fnb has shown me which is what I see in my banking app and since NO communication has been sent regarding anything else how must I smell it’s a separate account that’s not being paid? How can fnb even have the audacity to tell me I’m wrong and must accept it? No! They messed up! R7000 in interest is unfair to me seeing as I’ve been paying into an account, the ONLY account on my app, and had i been informed and fnb followed up like they’re supposed to, I’d have not wracked up so much interest! How dare they expect me to accept this nonsense! To then tell me to go to the NCR about my debt counsellor instead of addressing their lack of communication is audacious! How is that going to change the fact fnb didn’t contact me in over a year???? It doesn’t! The NCR and my ex debt counsellor has nothing to do with their lack of following due process! This is their ball that they dropped yet they refuse to take accountability!

But what really irks me now even more is the fact fnb has gone silent since my response requesting this is escalated! Absolutely no response! Just an “automated” email that was sent 3 days later during working hours funny enough with a turn around schedule and well it’s been more than the 72 hours mentioned in that email and still not even a hello, it’s been escalated! Then I emailed the complaints and again no response! Not even a reply saying we will get this to the right department. Nothing. Just more silence!

This has left a sour taste in my mouth and it worries me that fnb can’t even pick up a phone. Send an email or sms to inform a client in over a year yet are happy to expect me to pay the interest that came out of their lack of communication! It is scary that they have access to our monies yet can’t even follow laws set by the credit act!

And the irony? I actually told a friend not long ago she’d be better off with fnb as her bank when she asked for recommendations! What a slap in my face! Ten years a client and they stab me in the back like this.

So now should I take this matter to the banking ombudsman? Will they take me seriously then? Will they take accountability then? Why wait until that happens? Why ignore it and pretend it will go away?