Complaint Standard bank

Hi My partner and l were attacked at home. He passed on and l sustained serious injuries. I had to have an operation to my right arm to save the use of my arm. It was a complicated operation because the first orthopaedic surgeon who attended to me was negligent and the bones separated too far apart. This made the operation with another orthopaedic surgeon far more complicated. I have plates, *****s, bone grafts, putty and other things in my arm. My ear was cut from the back to the front. I have lost my hearing ability in my right ear. It was all very traumatic. My partner was put into a coma and on to a ventilator without my consent as l was his medical next of kin. My partner was in the ICU and on life supportt in Mediclinic, Pietermaritzburg. On the 6th day, again without my consent, l found out that the life support was going to be switched off. I have been in the legal profession for 30 years and completed my Master of Laws degree on Medical law, Forensic medicine and Child law. I insisted that l did not want the life support switched off but the doctor just ignored me. I had to watch my partner of 18! and a half years switched off life support. That completely damaged me. So much of me died with him.

I was not working at the time due to a diagnosis of endometrial cancer. My partner insisted l stay at home and have treatment. I was; therefore, financially dependent on my partner. After my operation to my arm, l cannot write legibly and my arm has limited functionality. I could not go back to work because my right arm has limited functionality. Sometimes the operation site pains even though l have not used my arm. I am the sole beneficiary of my late partner’s estate. Unfortunately, the finalisation of the estate is taking longer than l expected.

I have banked at Standard Bank since 2013 and my accounts were managed very well. It was only since March this year that l had depleted all my funds. I have two Titanium credit cards with Standard Bank. I was not informed that the one credit card was being handed over to an attorney for collection. I have managed these credit card’s excellently and l do not want these credit cards to be revoked. I am trying to get some bridging finance to pay off all my accounts. I do need my credit cards and deserve to have them. The credit card division is aware of my problems. I was given two payment holidays which l appreciate. When the second payment holiday ended l app**** for a third payment holiday and to date l have not been given any feedback on my application. I received a call from a Standard Bank consultant in Cape Town who told me that l cannot apply for a third payment holiday because l was currently on a payment holiday. She was clearly confused. I honestly feel that the credit card division should have looked into my payment history and shown me some compassion. They could have told me to make payment s of R500.00 on each credit card until the estate is finalised.l and my credit cards should certainly not been revoked. I The credit cards should not be with their collections division because the circumstances which led to my being unable to pay is the result of the attack on us both. I am the heir to a large sum of cash and was planning on investing the cash with Standard Bank. My circumstances are really very sad. I am suffering of severe PTSD, anxiety and panic attacks for the first time in my life and am seeing a psychiatrist.

I have an overdraft of R43000.00 on my person cheque account. Debits were still going through and despite my state of health, transactional banking called me every day. They too should have looked into my payment history and granted me an extended overdraft of R50000.00. The credit card division was debiting my account almost every day and transactional banking were charging me the unpaid fee of R130.00 each time. I I requested them to refund those amounts and they refused.

I also have a business account with Standard Bank. I was being charged the interest charges twice every month. They too were not prepared to refund the funds which they should not have charged me. Aside from the constant calls from Standard Bank, their attorneys call me and insist l pay exorbitant amounts which l simply do not have. I am mourning the loss of my partner. My life has changed so drastically for the worst since l lost my partner. We were planning on getting married and going on honeymoon to Paris, Monaco and Monte*****. Instead all l have are tears and Standard Bank has shown me no empathy. The bank does have a discretion to accommodate clients in exceptional circumstances which are beyond their control. I have banked with Wesbank since January 2018 and I must say they have done their level best to accommodate me. I have banked with Standard Bank for much longer and have a prestige account with them.

Wesbank deferred payment for 6 months and extended the settlement date so that l would not have to pay any arrears when the grace period was over. I called Wesbank and explained that the estate has still not been finalised and l requested them to please lower the instalment amounts. They reduced my instalments by over R900.00. Large sums of money passed through my Standard Bank account and one of my credit cards was in credit of about R40000. The limit on that credit card is R76500.00. The other credit card has a limit of R66000.00. I have settled both credit cards about 2 or 3 times. In January 2020, Old Mutual paid out my sickness benefit of R204000.00. That amount was paid directly into my Standard Bank prestige account. Thereafter for a period of 12 months Old Mutual paid a monthly amount of R15996.00 also into my prestige cheque account. My partner had inherited a very large sum of money and he would transfer large amounts from his FNB cheque account. I am so deeply disappointed with the manner that Standard Bank has treated me. I complained to their complaints division but nothing came of that. I believe that if one has conducted their accounts extremely well that they should be accommodated in their times of need. I am so pressured by the financial stress, l long for my partner so much that l wish we both could have gone together. I read a novel and something very apt was in the novel. It was “often the living suffer the most pain”. I feel that way. My life is empty and meaningless without my partner.

Thank you.

Kind Regards Shan-na Padayachee