Closing a Standard Bank Creit Card

Today I tried to cancel a credit card... A simple task, yes??? NO. First I called standard banks Card division to ask how... 25 minutes on hold and I gave up. I then drove to Randridge mall to their branch... CLOSED DOWN. I then drove to Cresta Branch, where I was told that they cannot close a credit card down... I have to call Card Division.

I call their card division, and after a while get through to a consultant. we go through the security measures and she then asks what she can do for me. I tell her I want to cancel my credit card as I don't use it. Simple enough... But NO, it is not. I owe R75 in bank charges ( I have not used this card in forever, and only seem to incur bank charges which I keep having to pay) I have deposited into the ATM in Cresta R100 to cover them, which should show up tomorrow... HOWEVER, I cannot close my credit card because... wait for it.... I am within 7 days of my statement cycle!!! so, please wait until the 2nd of the new month (so that I will have MORE bank charges added to my account), then please try and call them AGAIN, and they will then give me a settlement amount (which of course includes 7 extra days of interest and charges over and above the 3 extra days from now until the end of the month) which I must then pay before they will close my account.

WHY SHOULD I PAY FOR THE EXTRA DAYS THAT I AM NOT USING THEIR FACILITIES???? WHY CAN'T THEY CLOSE MY ACCOUNT ON THE DAY I ASK FOR IT TO BE CLOSED????

It seems that they will make life as hard as possible to close an account and charge more than they rightly should.... for no reason that I can see.

During this exchange I also find out about a second card on my account... that they have been charging me for... a card which I do not have, nor have ever used.. but am being charged for on a monthly basis.

On this note I feel it only fair to say that the lady I dealt with handled the situation as best as she could, explaining to the best of her abilities why the bank needs to charge me more than what I (or any normal person) would feel is necessary. We must also take into account that the amount of money involved is Miniscule, and I write this on PRINCIPLE.... Something Standard Bank should look up in a dictionary so that they too can understand it's meaning.

I do not think I will do business with Standard Bank in the future.