Literally Choose Any Other Bank Besides Standard Bank

Really where do I even start? Well I tried to close my account in the week. It could not be done due to my balance being negative. Now its not like I spent money I didn't have....IT WAS BANK CHARGES going off monthly BECAUSE I didn't have money in the account. I lost my part time job last year due to covid. Many of us have. I've been unemployed since. Being unemployed means that I DON'T HAVE MONEY TO PUT INTO THE ACCOUNT. Standard bank kept putting through fees in my account. Instead of the usual monthly fee they started to up it by R50/R60 PLUS charging interest. Like dear god are you even being serious. You can see no money has been going into the account for months so what is their solution to put me 100s of rand in debt with BANK CHARGES THAT THEY CHANGED WITHOUT NOTICE. So the lady that tried to help me said she couldn't close my account and I would have to phone the credit department to make an arrangement. I did and the guy was a robot. Not understanding not caring nothing just repeated the same thing we can't do anything without payment. If you don't pay we hand you over to the lawyers. I begged...and when I say BEGGED I mean begged for some sort of help. I'm young in my 20s. No parents. Trying to just get by. I asked him for any type of help and he just didn't give 2 hecks. If the bank could've been a tad lenient or even just been more helpful it would've made the world of a difference to someone who just needs some help during tough times. Now I understand that as a bank they must hear sad stories every day and can't help everyone however the money I owed them wasn't anything I took...it was charges that they made (not my monthly charges) but rather ones that jumped R50/R60 +. Now before I submit my review I'd like to say that my part time job was in retail. The store I worked for was next to a standard bank. I knew people working there. I called one of the girls I knew and asked her if it was possible for the credit department to write off my small debt (small debt to a bank but a big debt to me. When you're unemployed, even a R10 makes a difference) or to at least do something to lessen it, she said yes they could. They could reverse the charges...its possible to lessen it. So to the robot guy that decided to be nasty during tough times....I will never forgot you...and to standard bank...I will never open another account with you and ANYONE who I know that banks with you I will waste my last breath convincing them to give Capetic, FNB or even ABSA a chance rather than to be loyal to you for years and not get any help when needed. I'm a law student and I know that what they did wasn't ******* but as for morally...that was just disgusting. I know enough to know that once handed over to the lawyers, because I don't own anything like property or cars etc, they can't repossess anything. However they could black list me. Imagine being in your 20s and struggling only to be black listed during not only a pandemic but during an economic crisis in south africa. We all know the country's financial situation lately...and standard bank instead of choosing to help its customers...chose to look past our struggles. This was the time to step up and help each other as many of us are in the same boat. I had to borrow money to pay my account and to my horror there was even more charges that I had to pay just to close the account. After all of this the i went back and the lady helped me very quickly to close it. Anyway with all this in mind i want to tell existing standard bank customers or even potential ones...DO NOT CHOOSE TO BANK WITH STANDARD BANK. Rather try your luck with LITERALLY ANY OTHER BANK. Thank You