Major Issues At Standard Bank

I mainly have 4 major issues with Standard Bank that I want to outline here and I challenge Standard Bank's highest employees to come forward and try to prove me wrong, because I have more than enough proof.

1) Standard Bank taking their fees from reserved amounts.

I finally figured out the problem in Standard Bank's whole banking system and how they knowingly take millions from their clients in honoring fees. When you have a cheque account at Standard it allows you to deposit a R100 for example and after depositing it you are able to withdraw, swipe, buy airtime, send instant money for the whole R100. This is because the fees does not go off from your account immediately. Now say for instance you have R100 in your bank account and you swipe at a merchant for R50. The R50 gets reserved for purchase immediately and the R50 also goes off from your available balance immediately, leaving you with R50 available balance. You are then allowed to either withdraw, EFT, send an instant money, buy airtime, play lotto etc. for the whole R50 that's available in your account. Now this is where the problem comes in. When you withdraw the R50, there's an withdrawal fee depending on the amount, when you do an EFT and you put the receiver's number in to receive an sms notification for instance there's an sms notification fee of R1.60. When you send an instant money there's an fee of R10.50 and when you buy airtime there's an fee of R1.20. The problem is, Standard Bank is supposed to either let your account go into a negative or restrict you from using the whole R50. What they are knowingly doing instead is they take their fees from the initial R50 that was reserved for purchase and then when the merchant finally banks a few days later there's not enough money in the account to fulfill the transaction. Now because the R50 was supposed to be reserved, Standard Bank has to honor it and then charges their clients the exact amount that their client initially swiped for as an honoring fee. In other words when you have R100 in your account and you swipe for R50, buys airtime for the remaining R50 your available balance is R0.00 and your actual running balance is R48.80 until the merchant banks. When the merchant banks the R48.80 is not enough to fulfill the transaction and it is honored by Standard Bank. This is clear proof that Standard Bank is taking their fees from reserved amounts, which they are not allowed to do, resulting in their clients paying honoring fees. The honoring system on their cheque accounts was intended for the purpose when an debit order goes off for instance and there is a little less money in your account than the debit order amount, it gets honored by the bank and you are charged the honoring fee. This is nice and I don't think anyone would mind paying the honoring in such case, but when you have more than enough funds in you account at the time you purchase something with your card and 10 days later your purchases gets honored and you are charged big honoring fees it becomes a big problem. When you go to the bank and complain about it they keep on telling you that you did not have enough money in your account when you purchased the goods. A while ago at Standard Bank, The Grove, after sitting in a covid line waiting to get helped they refused to refund the honoring to my account. After I made a scene, the manager was called and he also kept on telling me that I did not have enough fund in my account at the time of purchase. Even after showing them the messages I received at the time of purchase showing my available balance after each purchase they didn't want to refund my honoring fees. They eventually logged a query at my branch in Gezina. 3 hours later I received an sms that the query has been resolved and closed without any refund to my account or anyone even contacting me. This is a battle I have with Standard Bank for about 2 years and every time after proving them wrong the honoring fees gets refunded but they are not correcting it on their banking system. When I went to the branch last week a query was lodged for only 2 honoring fees that is still not resolved.

2) Online credit card application wasting your time.

I recently app**** for a credit card at Standard Bank using their banking App. After filling in all the information I was pre-approved for a credit card with a limit of R48 000. I then chose a smaller limit with an minimum monthly payment that I can afford at the moment. After proceeding, the contract/agreement was available to sign electronically on the app. After I signed it, I received an email saying that my credit card has been approved with the signed agreement attached and that my card will be available for collection after 5-7 days. A few minutes later, I received a call from Standard Bank. After telling them that I am self employed they told me that I must go into the branch to finalize my credit card application. Again after sitting in a covid queue, I was told that I must bring my books from my accountant for the last 3 months, proving my income. Now I don't understand why they approved my credit card, let me sign the agreement, send me an email that it was approved and that my card will be available after 5-7 days and after all of that I must prove my income. They have access to all my statement and can see my income. Why didn't they tell me when they phoned me that I must take my books for the last 3 months to my branch. On my profile at the bank it clearly shows that I am self employed. Why were they surprised when I told them on the phone that I am self employed.

No communication between Standard Bank's marketing employees. 3) Different employees from Standard Bank keep on phoning me to offer me a sim card. Each time I have told them that I am not interested because I do not have a dual sim phone and it wouldn't be practical for me to put their sim in my phone once a month and use the airtime. Each time someone different phones me and I have to explain to them again.

4) Random Mistakes and Fees

The owner of the place that I am renting, also banks at Standard Bank. I do regular payments from my Standard Bank account to his Standard Bank account and always gets charged R1.60 for the sms notification that gets send to his cell number when I do a payment. Yesterday after I have made an payment to his account I was charged R20 for payment confirm fax. After I saw it I went on my banking app and checked his beneficiary profile and the only confirmation that was selected was sms. How can Standard Bank all of a sudden charge me for a fax confirmation that was never selected? How can a fax be sent to his cell number? Most people does not even pick up these charges on their account. Those who does pick it up and complains, the bank just say sorry and refund it back to their accounts. Who is going to sit in a covid line for how long to get R20 refunded to their account, so many people rather just leave it. For all I know these things might be planned and initiated by the Bank knowingly, because if you steel R1 from a million people you have a million rand.

Outcome of this review/complaint

I want 1) the higher officials from Standard Bank to contact me so I can explain to them in detail the flaws on their banking system. 2) Standard Bank to correct the problems on their banking system and stop taking bank fees from reserved amounts, resulting in their clients paying honoring fees. 3) to review my account and refund all honoring fees, mistakes etc. immediately 4) To disable the honoring system on my account. I don't want to see any honoring fee on my account for whatever reason ever again. 4) to review my account to determine if I actually qualify for credit or not and then contact me afterwards. 5) to change their stupid online credit card application process and stop wasting people's valuable time.

If the issues above, especially issue number 1 is not resolved as soon as possible and the problems on your banking system fixed, I will have to take this to the Consumer Protection, the Ombud and the South African Banking Association for further investigation.