Blocked access to MY money

Today is March 2nd, by the 28th of the month all my bills are generally paid. Nothing has been paid for February because Nedbank has blocked my accounts. All 3 of them; two savings one cheque…without notice or explanation. After spending hours on the phone it appears that there is a FICA document outstanding; I was told ‘but surely your personal banker smsed you?’ Not a chance, she does nothing. Ever. When she phoned me after the call centre sent her an urgent request, she said, after being asked why no sms, ‘but you and your husband moved your accounts from Randburg to Cresta’ So what? Cresta, not Mars. That would suggest she is no longer my personal banker and yet all the people who try to resolve this say she needs to resolve the problem. She did suggest I send her a copy of my I.D. but I have no wish to deal with her and want her removed from my profile. Yesterday, at 11:30, I was told by Sivani at the call centre her boss, Freddy Vos, Foss(?) would call me back urgently… 24 hours later I’m still waiting.

I went into the Randburg branch very recently and dealt with Mohammed, he was excellent, he updated everything, sorted out a couple of errors on the account and took a copy of my I.D. Surely if there was anything outstanding he would have picked it up?

I tried going to Cresta branch yesterday but the queue was too long to wait as I had another appointment. I will try again today.

I will be taking this up with the banking ombudsman. I’m checking out other banks as ideally I would like to close all my Nedbank accounts. I don’t feel I can deal with a bank who forgets who their client is and who the money ultimately belongs to.

I cannot emphasize enough the frustration and inconvenience this has caused not to mention the cost of the time spent on the phone being passed from pillar to post. Had I had a few days notice I could have gone into a branch with the relevant documentation. To have it blow up on a Friday afternoon at the end of the month is unforgivable.