DO NOT get the student loan. Poor service, No Communication, ******** Handover

I'm a young engineer working for a small company that has fallen into some financial difficulty during the COVID crisis. As you can imagine, I'm working very hard at building up a solid credit record for my future.

I have a student loan with Std bank which requires a monthly repayment of R700 and change. I've been making monthly payments of R2000 and during april and may missed payments, making a payment on the 18th of this month of R4000 (when I finally got paid)

This morning I got an email saying I've been handed over for non payment!! Not only have I been repaying significant amounts, but the bank made NO attempt whatsoever to contact me before handing me over.

Their call center is frankly useless since nobody can do anything about it, and because the account has been handed over I am now immediately liable for the full amount and not my monthly payments. The "Complaints" department is an endless hold with a nice pre-recording telling me they are experiencing high call volumes- Not surprised

Never have I had to deal with such blatant incompetence and an attitude in which nobody really cares. I keep running into people saying I missed the two payments, and they can't comment on the fact I wasn't contacted.

Granted- The account was previously in severe arrears, this was resolved. I can understand the bank having less leniency in the two missed payments. However this is not an excuse considering what I am paying and that they didn't bother to contact me before handing the account over.