1 reviews | Active since Dec 2016
Awful Service
<p>On the 16th December 2012 my home was totally destroyed by fire.</p> <p>It took the Standard Bank 1 year to settle the claim during which time they used my architect to give them advice on how the new building regualtions app****.</p> <p> </p> <p>They settled in December 2013. During the entire period, December 2012 to December 2013 I was allowed to use my Access Bond normally. In the middle of 2013 I increased my monthly payments by R3,500-00 (i.e. R3,500-00 over what I waas required to pay) and I paid in R220,000-00 to reduce the amount of the bond.</p> <p> </p> <p>Standard Bank Insurance paid out part of the payout into my bond account and this is when things changed. Without contacting me the money that they had paid into my account was transferred out of this account and into my current account. When I found out where it was I transferred it back. THen the account was frozen for a few days and then I noticed that tbe amount of money that I could draw from this account had been reduced.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Bond is registered in the amount of R340,000-00 and the amount that I could use in December 2013 was reduced to some R198,000-00. </p> <p> </p> <p>I spent some 4 months trying to find out what was going on; this involved numerous visits to Standard Bank Rivonia, where the staff were very helpful but unable to shed any light on what was going on. All that Home Loans would tell me at the time was that they did not operate Access Bonds anymore. This I knew was not correct because I have another bond with Standard Bank and to this day it is operating normally as an Access Bond.</p> <p> </p> <p>As part of the incompetence of the Bank there are other aspects to this saga..</p> <p> </p> <p>In December 2013 I received an sms telling me that the insurance had been taken off my property. As I was still living on the property in a cottage and got them to reinsate it.</p> <p>However, before this, in early 2013 I received a letter from Standard Bank Insurance telling me that it was time for the annual renewal of my insurnace polilcy and giving me the new value and the premium. I phoned them to tell them that they were handling an insurance claim on this property as my house had been destroyed by fire. They told me that they had no record of this and that they would have to send out an assessor to verify this !!!</p> <p> </p> <p>During this period I was paying a premium on a non-exoastant house. When the assessor finally came out the cottage, garage walls etc. were valued at just over R1 million. This is significant because I have subsequently been told that because there is no value to the property they have no security. Obviously this is *******.</p> <p> </p> <p>I have also recived the following letter: "......................we request the client to submit plans for rebuid to take place. We then pay funds out as work progresses.............................The fact that it is treated as a building loan automatically means that access facility is revoked...............................The account in question is a usuary account...........................................We need to re-evaluatethat the customer can afford the laoan....................."</p> <p>16th November 2016</p> <p>This is proof again that the Bank has not looked at what it has done and at what I have said. I was paid out in full and was never asked to submit plans or progress reports. In addition, as mentioned above, I have been paying well over the normal amounts all this time. </p> <p> </p> <p>Whatever the Bank says and however reasonalble it may sound it does not alter the fact that I was not informed that these changes were going to happen. If I had been, A) I would nnot have deposited R220,000-00 into the account in mid 2013 B) I would not have returned the money to the bond account that the bank transferred out AND I would not have increased my bond repayments. The amount that I can now draw on has reduced from the R198,000-00 to some R153,000-00 in spite of the over payments.</p> <p> </p> <p>This missive does not adequately explain how poor the communcation has been from the Bank, as I have said, Ispent 4 months at the Rivonia Branch trying to find out what was going on. They even contacted the Bank's complaints department and I heard on speakerphone the consultant that I was dealing with being told that she should not get involved. </p> <p>I have been a client of the Standard Bank since 1972, I have a Prestige Plan Account and I am being treated as If I have just walked in off the street. I wven went to my personal banker who was not able to get anywhere.</p> <p> </p> <p>I conclude by repeating that I was not informed in advance about what they intended doing and that if I had been I would have managed my affairs differently AND that the indifference, misinformation and lack of communication from the Bank has been appalling. I really have the impression that they have not once looked at what they have actually done.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
Good day Christopher Hughes
Thank you for your posting and allowing us an opportunity to investigate your complaint.
This matter was allocated to a resolution specialist who will contact you to resolve your complaint.
Kind regards
Complaint Resolution Centre
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*** (fax)
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Good day Christopher Hughes
Thank you for your posting and allowing us an opportunity to investigate your complaint.
This matter was allocated to a resolution specialist who will contact you to resolve your complaint.
Kind regards
Complaint Resolution Centre
***
*** (fax)
***
Good day Mr Hughes
Bond account number: ********** 39
We acknowledge receipt of the complaint and would like to thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. At the outset please accept our sincere apology for the frustration incurred when dealing with us.
The matter has been investigated regarding the access bond facility, as previously highlighted the facility was stopped on 05 December 2013 and this was due to insurance claim at the time. Before the access facility was stopped a transfer was made to the access bond facility of R220000.00 on 01 March 2013 and from that date till the facility was stopped you have transfer out R337000.00 out the bond which was the benefit of the access bond limit option that allowed you have access between the loan amount and outstanding balance.
The Access bond link facility was reinstated on 20 January 2014, this facility only allowed you to have access to prepaid funds and the funds were access from 07 March 2014 till 30 November 2016. Currently there are no funds available to access via the link option.
The current remaining term months left on this bond is less than 60 months before the bond term expires and the access bond limit cannot be considered. The Readvance application would be an option in order to access the difference between the loan amount and outstanding balance.
The home loan account still falls under Usury Act and any further lending should comply with National credit act such as credit worthiness of the entity and it sureties do qualify for the loan required. The application will be subject to our internal credit lending policy at time of submission.
Kind regards
Sicelo khoza | Service Recovery Unit | Standard Bank of South Africa Limited| Johannesburg |
(: +27 10 ********** | 7: +27 11 ********** | *: **********
Good day Mr Hughes
Bond account number: ********** 39
We acknowledge receipt of the complaint and would like to thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. At the outset please accept our sincere apology for the frustration incurred when dealing with us.
The matter has been investigated regarding the access bond facility, as previously highlighted the facility was stopped on 05 December 2013 and this was due to insurance claim at the time. Before the access facility was stopped a transfer was made to the access bond facility of R220000.00 on 01 March 2013 and from that date till the facility was stopped you have transfer out R337000.00 out the bond which was the benefit of the access bond limit option that allowed you have access between the loan amount and outstanding balance.
The Access bond link facility was reinstated on 20 January 2014, this facility only allowed you to have access to prepaid funds and the funds were access from 07 March 2014 till 30 November 2016. Currently there are no funds available to access via the link option.
The current remaining term months left on this bond is less than 60 months before the bond term expires and the access bond limit cannot be considered. The Readvance application would be an option in order to access the difference between the loan amount and outstanding balance.
The home loan account still falls under Usury Act and any further lending should comply with National credit act such as credit worthiness of the entity and it sureties do qualify for the loan required. The application will be subject to our internal credit lending policy at time of submission.
Kind regards
Sicelo khoza | Service Recovery Unit | Standard Bank of South Africa Limited| Johannesburg |
(: +27 10 ********** | 7: +27 11 ********** | *: **********
This reply was sent to my private e-mail address and I have put it here as this is part of a public debate to show how unresponsive the Standard Bank is. This reply by the Bank only illustrates that the Bank does not look at the complaint in question and only at their procedures.
For instace, the above reply says, ".............before the Access facility was stopped a transfer was made to the access bond facility of R220,000-00 on1st March 2013........................"
I know that as I transferred said funds in. This is part of my argument, I was allowed to use the Access Bond Facility for a year after the fire without any notification from the Bank that it was going to change the status of the Bond. There is no comment in the reply from the Bank that the money that was tranferred into the accoundt from Standard Bank Insurance was transferred out of the Bond Account by them and that I transferred the money back because I had not been informed of the change.
The reply says that the Access Bond Link Facilty was reinstated on 20th January 2014. This is ridiculous and totally misleading. I had a normal Access Bond from December 2012 to December 2013. How , from a purely English language point of view, can you reinstate something that I never had !!!
Not only does the reply ignore that I was not informed that any changes were going to happen it totally ignores the 4 months I spent visting my local branch trying to find out what was going on. It ignores the fact that I was told that Standard Bank does not operate Access Bonds anymore (remember, I pointed out to them that I have another Access Bond which to this day still operates normally).
The reply then goes on to say ".........................Currently there are no funds availabe to access via the link option" !!!!!! This completely ignores the fact that in mid 2013 when the Access Bond was operating normally I increased my repayments from some R1,900-00 to R5,500-00. that in December 2013 the amount available for me to draw on was reduced from R340,000-00 to approxmately R198,000-00 in spite of the fact that to this day the registered amount of the Bond is R340,000-00. These over payments have continued uninterrupted to December 2016 (I have reduced the payments from this month because of what is going on) and all that has happened is that the amount that I can draw on has been REDUCED to approximately R154,000-00. some R186,000-00 less than the registered amount. I really would like the Bank to explain to me how it is that I have been overpaying by a considefrable amount for three and a half years and the amount that I can draw on is reduced.
So, once again, the Bank is not addressing the issues that I have raised which is why I have taken the hellopeter route.
The Bank did not inform me that these changes in the status of my bond account was going to change.
The Bank was unhelpful and misleading for the 4 months December 2013 to March 2014.
The Bank took money out of my Bond account in December 2013 without any notification or
explanation to this day.
The Bank has never commented on the fact that in early 2013 Standard Bank Insurance did not know that my house had been destroyed by fire and that I had to pay a premium on a non-existant house untill an assessor came out to verify the loss.
The Bank has said that the value of the property after the fire did not cover the value of the Bond which totally ignores the paragraph above because the assessor that came out after the fire valued the residual buildings etc at over R1 million and I have been paying premiums to Standard Bank Insurance for this entire period. Their current valuation at 1st January 2016 is R1,155,623-00.
The Bank has referred to its policy of requiring building plans and requiring progrss reports as I have detailed in my original compaintd on hellopeter. This may well apply in a number of cases but it does not apply to me because thay have never asked this of me and this is once again an indication that the Bank has not actually looked at what it has done, only what it normally does.
This reply was sent to my private e-mail address and I have put it here as this is part of a public debate to show how unresponsive the Standard Bank is. This reply by the Bank only illustrates that the Bank does not look at the complaint in question and only at their procedures.
For instace, the above reply says, ".............before the Access facility was stopped a transfer was made to the access bond facility of R220,000-00 on1st March 2013........................"
I know that as I transferred said funds in. This is part of my argument, I was allowed to use the Access Bond Facility for a year after the fire without any notification from the Bank that it was going to change the status of the Bond. There is no comment in the reply from the Bank that the money that was tranferred into the accoundt from Standard Bank Insurance was transferred out of the Bond Account by them and that I transferred the money back because I had not been informed of the change.
The reply says that the Access Bond Link Facilty was reinstated on 20th January 2014. This is ridiculous and totally misleading. I had a normal Access Bond from December 2012 to December 2013. How , from a purely English language point of view, can you reinstate something that I never had !!!
Not only does the reply ignore that I was not informed that any changes were going to happen it totally ignores the 4 months I spent visting my local branch trying to find out what was going on. It ignores the fact that I was told that Standard Bank does not operate Access Bonds anymore (remember, I pointed out to them that I have another Access Bond which to this day still operates normally).
The reply then goes on to say ".........................Currently there are no funds availabe to access via the link option" !!!!!! This completely ignores the fact that in mid 2013 when the Access Bond was operating normally I increased my repayments from some R1,900-00 to R5,500-00. that in December 2013 the amount available for me to draw on was reduced from R340,000-00 to approxmately R198,000-00 in spite of the fact that to this day the registered amount of the Bond is R340,000-00. These over payments have continued uninterrupted to December 2016 (I have reduced the payments from this month because of what is going on) and all that has happened is that the amount that I can draw on has been REDUCED to approximately R154,000-00. some R186,000-00 less than the registered amount. I really would like the Bank to explain to me how it is that I have been overpaying by a considefrable amount for three and a half years and the amount that I can draw on is reduced.
So, once again, the Bank is not addressing the issues that I have raised which is why I have taken the hellopeter route.
The Bank did not inform me that these changes in the status of my bond account was going to change.
The Bank was unhelpful and misleading for the 4 months December 2013 to March 2014.
The Bank took money out of my Bond account in December 2013 without any notification or
explanation to this day.
The Bank has never commented on the fact that in early 2013 Standard Bank Insurance did not know that my house had been destroyed by fire and that I had to pay a premium on a non-existant house untill an assessor came out to verify the loss.
The Bank has said that the value of the property after the fire did not cover the value of the Bond which totally ignores the paragraph above because the assessor that came out after the fire valued the residual buildings etc at over R1 million and I have been paying premiums to Standard Bank Insurance for this entire period. Their current valuation at 1st January 2016 is R1,155,623-00.
The Bank has referred to its policy of requiring building plans and requiring progrss reports as I have detailed in my original compaintd on hellopeter. This may well apply in a number of cases but it does not apply to me because thay have never asked this of me and this is once again an indication that the Bank has not actually looked at what it has done, only what it normally does.
22/12/16
Even I am surprised that the Bank has not rep****. Not even the courtesy of an acknowlegement.
To repeat - in brief - the Bank, in all its replies, has not rep**** to the issues that I have raised. All it has done is repeat that this is what we do. They have never addressed the fact that they did not inform me what they were going to do. They have never addressed the fact that I spent 4 months from December 2013 to March 2014 trying to find out what was going on. AND they have never addressed any of the other issues that I have raised.
22/12/16
Even I am surprised that the Bank has not rep****. Not even the courtesy of an acknowlegement.
To repeat - in brief - the Bank, in all its replies, has not rep**** to the issues that I have raised. All it has done is repeat that this is what we do. They have never addressed the fact that they did not inform me what they were going to do. They have never addressed the fact that I spent 4 months from December 2013 to March 2014 trying to find out what was going on. AND they have never addressed any of the other issues that I have raised.
8th February2017
Further to my last post of 20/12/16 I have still not received a reply from the Standard Bank.
I reiterate that the issue is not a quastion of what Bank poicy is; it is the issue of the total lack of commnication by the Bank before the time and immediately (four mmonths) after the time.
Christopher Hughes
8th February2017
Further to my last post of 20/12/16 I have still not received a reply from the Standard Bank.
I reiterate that the issue is not a quastion of what Bank poicy is; it is the issue of the total lack of commnication by the Bank before the time and immediately (four mmonths) after the time.
Christopher Hughes
22nd April 2017
Still a total lack of response from the Bank. One would think that a client with a long and good track record with the Bank would at least have been contacted in person. Standard Bank Home Loans does not have an office and it is impossible to vist them or meet a human being. Even the branches battle to get information out of them.
22nd April 2017
Still a total lack of response from the Bank. One would think that a client with a long and good track record with the Bank would at least have been contacted in person. Standard Bank Home Loans does not have an office and it is impossible to vist them or meet a human being. Even the branches battle to get information out of them.