Failure to close account and resulting grossly ********** fees.

I had a small personal loan and a cheque account with Standard Bank. I moved all my banking to FNB many years ago, but the accounts remained open as I still owed debts on them - and I was happy to have them remain so until I could finish paying them off. On 27 June this year I was able to do so -and paid the full R50000 to settle the overdraft and R6000 on the personal loan. I then visited a branch, stood in line for over an hour, and asked that the accounts be closed. I was assured this would happen within 24 hours.

The accounts were not closed. I have since been back to Standard branches 4 times (most recently this past Saturday the 26th of August), each time waiting in line for ages, and being assured that the accounts will definitely be closed this time - and each time it has failed to happen. Meanwhile standard bank continuous to charge me service fees on accounts that should have been closed long ago. Of course, since the account is empty, these fees then push it into credit - and then they charge me interest on fees - all on accounts that were meant to be closed months ago. By now I have spent hundreds of rands in the hope that arriving with the account neatly on zero will get it closed. Even on Saturday I was assured that the banker would follow up and phone me to confirm closure the next business day. It's now the end of Monday and I am done waiting.

At this point I demand that these accounts be closed immediately and I demand a full refund of all payments made to the account after June 27th as they were to settle fees and interest that Standard had absolutely no right to charge.