********* practices of the highest order

To whom it may concern

Years ago (over 7) I opened up a Student Achiever account at Standard Bank. This was the perfect account for me as it had no monthly fees and had free ATM deposits which I would occasionally use to deposit my pocket money.

Fast forward over 7 years, I approached the Standard Bank Sandton branch to close my student achiever account as I had not used it in years and am in the process of leaving the country for a long period of time. I was subsequently told that my account was in a negative balance and I would have to pay over R700 to close the bank account.

Upon further inquiry as to why my account was in the negatives, I was told that the account starts charging a monthly fee after age 23 and that should I not settle, “there will be consequences” and my credit record will be affected.

Let me lay out some facts given the story above: 1) It was never communicated to me that the account would start attracting a fee after a certain ago. Therefore, it did not even occur to me that my account could possibly be put into overdraft. 2) I did not give permission for my account to go into overdraft or negative balance. 3) I was never told my account was in a negative balance, despite the lady at the Standard Bank Sandton branch confirming that Standard Bank had my correct details. 4) I did not receive monthly statements, where I would be able to see my negative balance. My last monthly statement received was in April 2014 where my account had a balance of R621.04 (I know this as I keep all my statements)

This is nothing but blatant thievery by Standard Bank and ********* behaviour of the highest order.

I demand that Standard Bank not only write-off my negative balance, but refund all fees charged to me over the years without me being aware.

This is not only ********* but is against the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) regulation imposed by the FSB and is definitely *******. Standard Bank have definitely lost a customer, lost any future business from me and I’ll be sure to ensure that all potential Standard Bank customers I interact with know of this deplorable behaviour by Standard Bank.

With pure disgust, Dino Bertolis