My worst international experience with Standard Bank!

<p>I had a trip to China with my son scheduled from the 9th – 18th May 2016. We made the necessary arrangements with Standard Bank and we were promised that we will make withdrawals of R58 000 jointly, excluding swiping. On the 9th we had to miss the flight because the bank couldn’t give us the cash we needed. After fighting with the manager and successfully withdrawing the money, the branch failed to exchange the cash to Dollars. We asked for an account profile from the bank to enable us to exchange the money elsewhere and also failed to issue the client profile. We had to pay a very big penalty to reschedule our flight and for accommodation for two nights at the airport because our next flight was on the 11th!<br />While we were in China engaging in the business we travelled for, we couldn’t make withdrawals! Standard Bank cards were not working. We called Standard Bank from China where they confirmed that indeed Standard Bank was not working in China and Hong Kong. What’s worse is that it is an issue they’ve been having for a while yet they failed to advise us accordingly before we left South Africa. We pleaded for help and they literally failed helping us.<br />We were left stranded, frustrated and hungry. We had bought goods to the value of R150 000.00 with cash at hand but had to leave the goods by the roadside because we didn’t have money for shipping. We begged for cash to the airport and to buy food. We thought Standard Bank is an International bank but it is not! All other South African banks were working well in China except for Standard Bank, a bank I have been banking with for 15 years.</p>