So much for "Private Banking".... I am officially viewed as just a num ber

<p>I have always been a raving fan of Nedbank up until recently. I had a dream of a Private Banker, Lisa Richards, that pulled out all the stops to always assist me always, I recommended almost all my family and friends to private banking, a number of which are raving fans now too. When Lisa left, I was not happy and anticipated the worst, but I thought it would be business as usual. It took Nedbank over 3 months to allocate a banker to me, I had to make contact several times before actually knowing who was allocated to me and then my family runs into a huge financial rut and with my husbands employer firstly paying him short then retrenching him, which has now resulted in a CCMA case where he has the upper hand, I turn to Nedbank with an original offer/plan I had when moving to Nedbank and I get declined with the saddest excuse ever. I call Nedbank to consolodate my debt(transfer duties) into my bond, and for two imporvements/ amendments which will increase the house value by R200k(which my home has the capacity to absorb as I paid R400k less than the value), which I was told I could do when I first app****, but didnt need to as I was coping quite fine. However once my husband lost his job, it became apparent that this would need to happen, and the consolidation would save me a whole R10 000 vs a R2000 increase to my bond- makes sense right - this would include amendments that would increase the value of my property. Not only was a declined with feedback that made 0 sense, when I escalated it with my current banker, I got a response to say well your Nedbank HL was in arrears and your products with us is poorly managed, I went back guns blazing, saying I have never ever had a bounced debit order or ever missed a payment and demanded an explanation. My home loan was in arrears for less than 15 days(for my secondary income) because I had to cover my and my husbands debts, which I made Nedbank aware of, and stuck to my commitment till the very day. My banker very nicely tried to make sense of the situation to me, but I am still quite disgusted. His explanation was that as a Private Banking client I am expected to constantly operate within a certain financial standing(so middle to high income clients never loose their jobs - WOW), and because I could not pay my bond within the required time, I was declined, and that I would have better luck at a branch where my case will be viewed on merit, as private banking applications are viewed purely on making the "elite cut".... CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I am paying hundreds of rands extra to have a voice, to be viewed as a person, and I am told that I will get better help at branch level and can only if I cancel my private banking - so basically I am not good enough for private banking because my husband unfortunately lost his job.... I was going to let this go and was even prepared to wait this issue out and reapply, but I am very disappointed and actually on the verge of moving to FNB. Very Very disappointed- your feedback will impact on my decision!</p>