Avoid any dealings with this bank - like the plague!

They hooked us by offering the lowest interest rate on a bond - and a further half a percentage if we had a standard bank account they could collect the debit order out of. However the Consultant at Fourways Crossing imp**** that we were "wasting her time" when we went to that branch to open the account to comply with the above. Not even the head of their own Bond Attorney law practice could get any joy from that branch and eventually - Private banking contacted us and said they would open a current account for us so we could take advantage of the lower rate. However they didn't provide us with that account number until the month after the first bond payment was due - but still hold the unpaid debit order against us for that month - even though we paid the bond payment directly into the bond account. There is just no-one with any sense overseeing anything at standard bank - its a disjoined disorganised mess of unprofessional individuals and silos of business that do not communicate. But it didn't stop there. They added to the bond account a life cover policy of R1200 which they said my partner agreed to telephonically - it took us a month to get that recording out of them and ended up being a recording of him agreeing to R250 of home owners insurance. So the R3600 they have ****** is insurance ***** - and we will be reporting them to the FSB. When we app**** for the bond we included an ammount to get the security of the property up to scratch. This "access bond" ammount was aproved and we paid for it to be registered, but now they wont issue it because - amongst other issues - the debit orders have been "delinquent" - first because we weren't provided with the current account number but even if we had, the ********** additional R1200 charge means we would never have provided sufficiently for a bond that is supposed to cost far less than they were deducting. So despite the fact that the bond has been paid monthly, that they are guilty of insurance ***** - my home has been broken into twice since we moved in and I will hold them liable for the losses. We fired the first Private banker from Sandton who was always either on holiday or training, did not understand the standard bank products and has an assistance who is rude and unhelpful as well as *********** - but the second Private Banker assigned to us to resolve the issue has done precisely nothing in the last month but kindly provide us with the voice recording of the insurance call that proves that Standard Bank has ****** from us. He doesn't reply to e-mails or calls or whatsapp messages except to send us the occasional email to say he needs more time. Time for what exactly?

Standard Bank "complaints" division is manned by rude unhelpful obviously underquelified individuals who understand nothing so they leave us no choice but to take them to the FSB, the Ombudsman and additionally consider private legal action. If you want to avoid this nightmare - you will pass right on by ANY seemingly attractive offer this bank makes you and GO ELSEWHERE like we wish we had. Pay the extra percent! There is a reason this bank is ranked at number 7 with a 2 on the customer staisfaction score - they are DREADFUL and should close down and hand their clients over to other banks who give a toss about retaining clients. Their branches right through to their Private banking are incompetant, unhelpful and there's not an ounce of sense amongst all of them. The best we can hope for now is to have the Ombudsman order them to pay for our bond to be moved to annother bank where we might have a hope of having access to competant staff to deal with - even ABSA would be preffereable at this point with their extra 4% interest!! Bottom line - don't get suckered by a low interest - this bank is not worth the pain and loss they will subject you to afterwards.