Standard Bank *******

At no time have I ever intended or tried to renege on my commitment on the monies owed, to any of my Creditors. When the business I started in November 2008 started running into financial difficulties by late 2009 due mainly to the recession we found ourselves in, I took the decision to place myself under debt review so that I could pay my creditors back. The debt counselor that I placed my trust in was a lady by the name of Sheila Callanan Debt Counselling Services who negotiated with all my creditors and came to the relevant agreed payment amounts. At the time I was informed by the Sheila Callanan that if all the creditors agreed to the proposed monthly payments and she had acceptance letters from all of them, then the case would not necessarily go to court to obtain a judgment for entering debt review, I was never asked to appear and never had any other correspondence from the debt counselor or the creditors with regards to this point. I was also told that all my debt would be paid off within a five years. I was informed by Sheila in April 2010 that she had acceptance letters from all my creditors and that I should continue to deposit the agreed monthly amount into the Distribution Company (NPDA & later til present, Hyphen PDA,) at the end of each month. I did and have done this to date. In July of 2011 I discovered that Sheila Callanan was no longer managing my debt review but had handed my account over to a company called Credit Matters who are another entity unto themselves and I will post a review with regards to them. I now find after eight years of paying every month that I owe Standard Bank more than I initially owed them. For eight years Standard Bank has been very happy to receive the agreed amount in the acceptance letter bar for the fact that they never stuck to the agreed interest rate. Now Standard Bank’s argument is that because the case never went to court they have been justified in charging me the standard interest rate, which therefore meant that the payments made each month never covered the outstanding minimum amount due. Standard Bank never once over the last eight years bothered to contact me in this regard, they did however email both Sheila and Credit Matters, which I only found out this month because I received an email From Standard bank informing me of this by forwarding the mail sent. I never received statements from them, although I requested them many times. I had a business account with Nedbank and because of this it could not be put under debt review and so I agreed with Nedbank to pay them an agreed amount each month which was nowhere near the correct minimum amount, as I had explained to them that I was under debt review and this was all I could afford. That account was paid up in early 2014. So how is it possible that I can be under debt review and pay for three extra years and still owe more than when I started? If Standard Bank claim that they can do what they have then why did they play along with the pretence that I was in fact under debt review? If I am to believe there reasoning for NOT sticking to the acceptance letter, then I was never under debt review in the first place. I could have come to a personal agreement like I did with Nedbank and my debts would be paid up!!! I now find after eight years of paying every month that I owe Standard Bank more than I initially owed them. STANDARD BANKS ANSWER TO THE OUTSTANDING AMOUNT IS TO PAY IT OFF OVER THE NEXT 60 MONTHS AT O% INTEREST!!!!!!!! This is insane, hugely unjust and unfair. How is someone supposed to do the right thing when all that happens is you get #%&# over I have had enough and will now take this as far as I can to get justice, not just for myself but the many hundreds that must be in the same position with the banks and other institutions.