Credit Card never closed - Now Legal Account!

About a month ago I received a SMS stating that I need to make a payment to my Standard Bank Credit Card. I ignored the message as I do not have a Standard Bank Credit Card. On 29 January 2018 at 09:44 I received another SMS: “Standard Bank: Your credit card is still overdue. You must pay urgently to avoid termination of your facility or call us on ********** 807, 8am to 7pm. I then thought maybe I should phone Standard Bank to make sure that my information has not been used by someone else. Being so sceptic with all the ****s going around, I Googled SBSA’s number, not even using the one in the message. I was assisted, but very disappointing in how long you have to hold on and go through all the security information. I was informed that my credit card account, that I settled and requested to be closed in August, was never closed and was piling up charges and has been handed over to collections. I eventually put the phone down while being placed on hold just having to confirm an email address for the Collections department.

I then phone the Collections Department. The phone was answered by a lady named Lebo. In the answering, I wasn’t even greeted properly and asked what I may be assisted with – went something like this: “Thank you for calling SBSA collections/legal (can’t really remember), Lebo speaking, please give me your ID number. I gave my ID number and did the security check. After that I was told, as if I am a ******** that my account is overdue and an immediate payment must be made. I was very upset and told Lebo that she should be giving me an opportunity to tell her why I phoned and that she was not the one that made the call to me.

In August, I made calls to SBSA CC to for a settlement amount to close my Credit Card. On 18 August 2017 at 11:08 I made a payment of R14 849.00. I again contacted Credit Card to close my account.

I told Lebo that they are welcome to go and listen to all the calls I made for this to be completed. Lebo advised that the charges will be reversed and the account be closed. I requested TAT. I was advised 17-21 working days! I also demanded my credit record be amended as this is not my error but the bank’s. I was also annoyed as this department still had my ****en surname where my details were changed more than 8 years ago???

My question: 1. Can it really take so long to reverse charges and close account? 2. It all boils down to service – could the person handling my account at Legal/Collections not see no transactions took place on this account for so many months (as I haven’t been using the card as I destroyed it and was trying to pay it off); then see a huge amount was paid in and no other transactions made since then? What does it really take to draw an enquiry, and then pick up the phone to speak to the client where you can see the charges are the overdue amounts. 3. I have not even received a statement in months, so I could not have had any way of knowing that this account was never closed or overdue.

I am very unhappy with this service and expect immediate action on this account to be closed and my credit record to be amended accordingly. I have had so many challenges in the past few months to apply for a vehicle, etc. without even knowing that this R22 000 limit was never cancelled!