Standard Bank frustrating service on a new account - holding my monthly salary hostage!

I opened a savings account with standard bank last week Monday. Upon opening it was told that I needed to deposit R1000 into it then go back into the bank and ask them to set up my payment limit (including beneficiary payment and the cash send functionality). I made a deposit of R1000 into the account the next day and then on Wednesday went back to a branch to ask them to set up my online payment limit so I could make payment at that point was told that they couldn't set up a online payment limit as the account needed to be at least 7 days old. This was news to me and a very different narrative to the one I had been told when opening the account. I got paid yesterday into another banks account and immediately transferred the funds to my new standard bank account as I want it to be my main transactional account. Then went into the Parktown bank today to ask for the elusive online payment limit but was told again that this was possible! the excuse this time was that they needed to investigate the funds and establish where they came from and that could take up to 2 working days (today is Saturday and Monday is a public holiday this would mean I would only be able to have some kind of access to my money on Wednesday at the earliest. I was horrified I had no access to my money.

I was then told I could make a beneficiary payment into another bank account with the service consultant (for quite a large fee). When I agreed to do this, they then told me that actually that wont help me firstly, because the funds needed to be cleared and anyway they would take up to 2 - 3 working days to appear in the other bank account. Standard bank: please note that one can make an instant payment on the Capitec app/online banking platform to any other bank account for R10 per transaction and with FNB on their app/online banking platform for R40 per transaction. And those 2 banks have never ever held my money hostage like you are doing at this moment!

I then requested to close the account and withdraw all my money. Incredibly I was told I could not do that as well until after they have verified the funds. So here I am on a long weekend - unable to pay my bills, only able to draw the R1000 per day when what I need is far more (R1000 is the standard withdrawal limit that is automatically set when an account is opened) and basically unable to access and use my money as I need to.

None of these transactional fine print issues were explained to me when I opened the account. The consultant at the ****arney Mall branch that helped me open this account never covered that at all. This is ********! Had I known I would have never opened an account with you. I will most certainly withdraw all my funds and close this account at the very first opportunity that presents itself,. This is really really very bad flat footed inflexible service! Standard Bank would do well to learn about how other banks are offering equally secure services with much less hassle than your endless red tape!

#ThumbsDown