STandard bank Xenophobic policies for non SA citizens or customers

<p>So I tried to make an instant money transaction from my standard bank check account, which was successful, then thereafter, i needed to make another transaction using the same service (instant money) which was rejected. at first i thought it was a "technical glitch" so I tried again using my mobile banking app, USSD and internet banking and got the same result. soon after the last attempt, i got an sms from standard bank telling me that "for security reasons, we have blocked your account.....due to suspicious behavior. to unblock please call 0800....". i then went on to call the number and the agent did her checks and i explained what i was trying to do but she could not assist me and referred me to general banking or mobile banking. the mobile banking agent then told me that it is the banks policy that "the instant money service is not available to Passport holders or non-SA citizens". i then explained to her that ive used the service several times before and the only difference is that i needed to create a second instant cash voucher in the same day, within my daily limit, of which she told me that i shouldn't be able to do ANY instant cash transactions to begin with and the only reason i could do the 1st one was due to a "Technical glitch". I argued that the bank knows that im a passport holder and this was never communicated to me, neither have i seen any information either on the T & Cs or the mobile banking app, internet banking, their websites or adverti*****ts on billboards, magazines, TV, radio informing me of this "Policy". i went on to ask her to direct me to where she was getting that information from and why myself as a customer was not informed at any point of this. she had no answer except to refer me to her supervisor, who also had no answer for me except to tell me that its a technical glitch and all he can do is escalate this to the technical department, i suppose so that they can completely bar me from using that service. this policy, if its the bank's policy to begin with, is wrong and xenophobic. what criteria did they use to decide that certain customers should not be allowed to use this service?, and why is Standard bank the only bank using such a xenophobic policy, whereas their direct competition such as FNB do not have such a thing and allow their customers, irrespective of them being SA citizens or not, can use the ewallet facility as many times as they need to in a day as long as there are funds available and within the daily transaction limit. what is even more concerning is that no one could explain, or even direct me to a place where i could verify this information/policy. they simply didn't know what to do or say, but insisted on enforcing the policy. so what does this mean for me as a customer?, the best they could do was to tell me that they have escalated it to the tech department going to do about this, which is confusing because i don't think that the technician are responsible for banking policies, particulary relating account holders using passports. this to me is worrying and wrong at so many levels and id appreciate a response from Standard bank on this matter ASAP so i can mak a decision wether i should continue using their bank or not.</p> <p> </p> <p>Id also appreciate if the persons who is going to respond to 1st listed to the entire transcript of the call before responding, just to get a sense of how this was being communicated to me and the admission by standard bank staff, including the supervisor that they dont know why they are enforcing a policy they can not verify. Call ref no ********** 638</p> <p> </p> <p>Regards,</p> <p> </p> <p>Tawanda Mapondera</p> **********