Frustration with Standard Bank’s Card Replacement and App Linking Process

My cheque card was blocked by Standard Bank because I got an SMS stating that someone had used my card to make a transaction. I immediately called the bank, and they cancelled my card. They promised a new one would be delivered in 5 to 7 days and told me to go to the bank to get a temporary card. This was an inconvenience because just two months before, the same thing had happened to my card.

While I was waiting for the card, I could not do any online transactions on the app. When the card finally arrived, my card was not synced. I called the call centre on 17/10/2025. After waiting for more than an hour, an agent called me back. She said some department would fix the app in two hours. I still could not use the app.

I called the ***** Department on 18/10/2025 since they are the ones who blocked my card. The person tried to help me but could not, so he referred me to another department. I had to start explaining the whole process again! Then we got to a stage where I had to enter a PIN for the new card. We couldn’t, as the PIN is only available on the app, which we could not access. The agent was very impatient and unfriendly. At some stage, he referred me to another department to obtain the PIN number. When I got to him, he wanted us to restart the long verification process again! At this stage, I told him I was going to the bank.

Upon getting there just after 11:00, they had closed. As a "premium" client, I find this level of inconvenience unacceptable. If you blocked my card because your systems are not secure enough (How did someone get my card details???), why should I be inconvenienced to fix everything to how it was before? I didn’t cause the issue.

I am expecting the process to be more functional than this. When you courier the new card, should you not follow through and make sure it’s linked to the app? That is so basic. I don’t understand why you can’t do that.

The call centre staff I spoke to clearly do not have app knowledge because between the two of them, the issue was not solved.