Fees and charges and outstanding authorisations and...

Honestly, I don't know where to start.

When applying for my first credit card, I was (forcefully) encouraged by the assistant that my student account benefits were no longer valid, despite having just renewed the card. Only to find it this is bull**** and I am now paying out of my ass for my cheque and credit card. Why, you may ask? Because just after I successfully received all these cards the VAT increase saw my monthly fees almost DOUBLE.

Oh. And did I mention that not only do I not possess an overdraft on any of my accounts, I DO NOT EVEN FINANCIALLY QUALIFY FOR ONE. Yet to my surprise, this morning my cheque account is in the red due to unspecified "unpaid fees" to the value of over R120.

This strange turn of events has been a recurring theme since switching accounts. Suddenly transactions don't clear immediately anymore and, oh look - there's a total of R1000 "outstanding card authorisation fees" from various vendors. Are they unable to immediately validate payments? Because my measly student account never had this problem.

I'm just awaiting the next fee that Standard Bank will tack onto my account. Contacting Fnb tomorrow, because clearly my 12 year old relationship with Standard Bank is no longer financially viable.