Wesbank's Payment Relief policy is Reckless

I don’t usually raise issues like this, but after my interaction with WesBank yesterday regarding their so-called “payment holiday” option, I feel this needs to be called out and properly reviewed.

The structure of what’s being offered does not make sense from a fair or responsible lending perspective.

I was told I can take a payment break of up to three months. However, this would result in roughly eight additional months being added to my finance term. To put that into context: my instalment is about R4,000 per month, so over three months that’s R12,000 in relief. In return, the proposed adjustment effectively adds around R16,000 or more to the overall repayment term.

That doesn’t look like assistance — it looks like a net loss to the client.

Even accounting for interest, the estimated cost over those three months would be in the region of R4,200. That amount would still be recovered over time if the term was simply extended by three months, which would be a far more reasonable and transparent approach.

Instead, the current structure significantly increases the long-term burden on the client. It doesn’t properly consider the client’s financial position and, in my view, results in a poor and financially unsound outcome.

I approached the bank looking for short-term relief, not a solution that leaves me worse off over the long term. Offering a product like this as “assistance” is misleading and needs to be reconsidered.

At the very least, this policy should be reviewed to ensure it genuinely supports clients in difficulty, rather than placing additional financial strain on them under the guise of relief.