Standard Bank South Africa
reviews and complaints

I really believe that Standard Bank's My Updates SMS service is a money-making scheme because the service does not really "update" you. I get the wrong balances on my account, which makes me think that I still have more money so I keep spending only to get a heart attack later when I get the actual balance. I also discovered that I have an overdraft which I specifically refused when opening the account. I went to a branch in morningside and I was sent from pillar to post, the lady at enquiries telling me that she can't help me, I need to go to a branch that has consultants. I just joined the bank a year back and my experience is just a nightmare.

I have been struggling to get Standard Bank to just fax me the settlement figure for my vehicle. This is day three and still no response from them. I have been waiting more than an hour on the phone (dialing and redialling) because of persons not answering their phones. They have promised to fax the figure and whenever I enquire there is simply no response or they send me to another person who promises to deliver and never does. I need to purchase the vehicle from them as the residual has kicked in and or return the vehicle to them. Conveniently my car is all of the sudden under debt review on their accounts when they have just forced me to pay full monthly payments because they said that it cannot be under debt review because it is a rental. In addition they have also taken legal steps against me for so called missed payments on my other vehicle - when I gave proof of all payments they changed their story to payments not according to agreed amounts - when I once again showed the opposite they never even had the decency to respond. They must be in trouble as I have heard of many people being chased down for so-called payments. I take it they are stalling on this issue to force me to return the car because the date transpires rather than having me settle the account in full. Once again - the worst service delivery of all banks - Standard Bank.

On Friday I was left stranded at a garage after filling up with petrol because my Standard Bank Garage Card was declined - instinctively I thought I had run out of funds due to all the petrol increases. For the past 2 days I couldn't access internet banking. I placed a call this morning to the customer care division and they said ALL my accounts have been frozen because I am not FICA registered. I am most certainly am - this year alone I have submitted proof of residence 4 times already. They transferred me to the FICA department and ALL my documents are on the system and up to date. Nobody notified me that they were going to freeze my account. It is unacceptable and considering that I had submitted my documents makes it completely unacceptable!

I'm wanting an e-Mail address at the Credit Card Division of the South African Standard Bank.
Nowhere can i find such an address on their website, only telephone numbers which i cannot utilize because i live on a farm without land line connection to the world because of cable theft.
To phone by cellphone is uneconomical to speak to a consultant about my query
I'm wanting to try and resolve a serious matter with my credit card regarding unsolicited debit requests from abroad.
Thanking you,
George Terblanche

I try applied for inter banking on e-mail, but my application was denied because they said that my profile is not the same as the one on record.
The requested that i should personally visited the bank, i can't because i am out of the country and i need to pay some outstanding accounts through Inter net banking while i am still out of the country to avoid been blacklisted.

I.D. [protected].

I was at the Standard bank in Chris Hani Mall it took me about 45min just to do a deposit. The bank has 10terminals but only three were working when I got there. What makes things worse people withdrawing large amount are being given money in front of everyone. They've got three bulk terminals which can be used for people withdrawing large amounts.People have been robbed after withdrawing money from the banks at the Chris Hani Mall in Vosloorus, it's all because of the bank management.This has to come to an end we pay the same bank charges as the people who are in Sandton so why should we be treated differently?

Three of my debit orders were returned unpaid. Each time Standard Bank charges a fee of R115-00. The last one was returned although the difference between the dedit order amount and the fee was less than R15-00.I have discussed this with StandardBank customer care but we could not reach a solution. Although I have paid money into this account and after I have discussed this with customer care yesterday, I found out this morning that they have returned a fourth debit order for R25-00 and charge once again R115-00. There were funds in the account. I WILL close this account as I think this is a complete rip-off.

My husband & myself applied for a home loan with Standard Bank through a mortgage originator 2 weeks ago and have had nothing but poor service & a sluggish response. We submitted all the required documentation to the originator on completion of the application. On [protected], our originator req my husbands payslips for last 6 months because he earns overtime. We only needed to submit Oct, Nov & Dec because they already had the latest 3 months paylips. We forwarded the Dec payslip on Tues [protected]. I called [protected], spk to a Selene who told me that my application was closed on [protected] - the same day the docs were requested!- because no docs was recieved. I was shocked & horrified to hear that because no one informed me or made contact with me. I was then told they were going to re-instate & reassess my application. My originator told me today that our application was declined because of some scorecard. I am utterly disappointed & disgusted at the way in which my & my husbands bond application has been handled...my husband is an existing bond acc holder with Standard Bank & cant understand why our business is being 'thrown away'. Our offer to purchase is also expiring soon.

I have a joint homeloan with my husband. Just recently, in November I closed my savings and opened a cheque acc. I had a 4mth arrears credit card balance which as usual I intended to settle fully at March end when I receive my bonus WHICH I COMMUNICATED TO THEM. At end Jan, Std Bnk deducts +-R 5000 WITHOUT NOTIFYING ME OF THIS PRIOR. I phoned them, and promises were made to investigate and try to refund me- NO REFUND- NO RESPONSE. At March end, with my husband having made payment arrangements re our home loan, Std bank, sees fit to deduct R20000 from my personal cheque account, once again WITHOUT INFORMING OR GETTING AUTHORISATION FROM ME or arranging with ME. Apparently policy allows them to take what they need from any linked account which makes me angry that I even thought of opening a chq acc with them. In 3 mths, they have taken R25000 from me which I need to live and take care of 3 kids. THEY HAVE NO CONSCIENCE THAT I DON'T HAVE A SINGLE CENT LEFT IN MY ACC, WHEN MY HUSBAND AS BEEN CONSISTENTLY IN CONTACT WITH THEM RE HOMELOANS PMNT ARRANGEMENTS. SO, THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! I DEMAND A FULL REFUND AND AN OPPORTUNITY FROM THERE, TO RESTRUCTURE PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS.

I'm being harassed by Standard bank. I receive telephone calls from their call center either from the 011 981 xxxx numbers (registered to Standard bank) or from an unknown number. For some reason their call center always comes through as a data call and as such I cannot answer. However, their voice messages confirm that it is Standard bank looking for one of their clients. It appears to be their credit department.

On the 19th of January 2010 I brought this to their attention. After a couple of weeks they managed to find the offending account and removed my cellphone number from their records. Now I am once again receiving these calls. Frequent emails to the gentlemen (Matlanato, William W, a very helpfull chap at the time) who assisted me the first time yielded no results. Not even a reply email.

I have mp3 records of a number of these calls and yet they still cannot seem to resolve this issue. I would very much like this matter to be escalated to a higher level as the current support team is ineffective.

I have now indicated that I am willing to bring my lawyers into the matter as this is unacceptable. How difficult is it to keep my number off their system?

We submitted an offer to purchase a property currently owned by Standard Bank Properties In Possession (PIP). After three weeks and at least 100 phone calls, 50 e-mails and numerous attempts by the agent to contact the PIP department we STILL don't know whether our offer has been accepted or rejected.

The personnel from PIP's phones are always engaged and phoning the [protected]) number results in your call being inexplicably dropped or you holding on for 30 minutes + before giving up. I'm pretty sure that phones are actually taken off the hook.

E-mail requests, when they get answered, usually make promises that are never delivered on i.e. 'a letter with the result of your offer will be forwarded to you by LATEST tomorrow morning' (we're still waiting a couple of days later).

I've even logged a complaint on Standard Bank's website using the complains tool; however, the turnaround time according to the e-mail I received is 8 DAYS. WHAT, 8 DAYS to look at a complaint. Come on! And I'm still waiting on any sort of communication after logging the complaint about 6 days ago.

If you're planning to buy a PIP property from SBSA, just walk away.

Around 10 and 11 January there were 4 international transactions where someone from another country drew money from my Standard Bank account with an ATM card. It was not my card as I still had my card in my possession here in South Africa. I advised the relevant department at Standard Bank and cancelled my card. The total of the fraudulent transactions was about R2600. I was told by Bronwyn de Gray Birch, Transactional Queries Standard Bank Integrated Processing Centre in her first email: '..in order for us to get a location and reversal done we need to send a request through to the department that deals with these withdrawals, however these requests can take 45 days or more to get an answer...'. I received a few updates, the last of which was today, 9 March which said '...received a response from the foreign bank and according to them everything was successful so they won't be refunding you back...' The only other way for me to try get my money back is a whole long complicated procedure. It is not my fault. It is the bank's fault. Why can I not get my money back! I intend to change to another bank as I am extremely upset about this.

I was browsing their website in search of more information regarding home loans and such, when I saw that they offer what they call a 3 month payment holiday...

I quote 'Three month payment holiday option - Option 3: A three month payment holiday options allows you to pay your first instalment three months after registration. '

So... naturally being interested in having this option, I phone their home loans department, to see whether I qualify for this wonderful opportunity. And this is where they inform me that it does not apply to the 3 months after bond registration as their website claims... oh no, you have to pay 12 MONTHS worth of premiums and ONLY AFTER 12 months can you take a 3 month payment holiday.

Is this not false advertising? Do they not deserve a lawsuit against them? They have already botched my application after I specified : FIRST TIME HOME BUYER - JUMPSTART PACKAGE PLEASE. Guess what, I did not get a jumpstart, because it wasn't applied for...

Now this... I am sick and tired of running into walls with them, nothing ever gets done right. EVER!

On 27 November 2009, I applied for a home loan through a bond originator. On 12 December, the home loan was approved. I was delighted and pleasantly surprised by the efficient service of Standard Bank. Upon discovering that the bond originators had not been honest and upfront about the fact that although the assessor appointed by the bank valued the property at the same value as the purchase price, the full amount would not be advanced if one uses a bond originator rather than apply in person, I cancelled the home loan on 18 February. I did so in the hope of re-applying in my individual capacity for the purchase of the same property. All of this was disclosed to the bank where no objection was raised as registration had not taken place. Confirmation of the cancellation and NTU was on 25 February. On 26 Feberuary, I went to the Northcliff branch to re-apply for the home loan with all of the required documents. On that same day, I got a text confirming receipt of the application and reference number. I called today to enquire about the status and I was told that there is an adverese listing on my credit profile. This cannot be true. I do not have a negative credit profile.

I am totally appalled that on the Standard Bank Vehicle and Asset website, Standard Bank offers pre-approval for vehicle finance. The claim on the website is: Having pre-approved finance is like shopping with a cheque in your back pocket. You'll find it easier to decide which car to buy if you know upfront how much finance you qualify for. So, don't wait like everybody else for their finance application to be approved, go ahead now and apply for pre-approved finance. All you are required to do once you have found the car of your dreams is present your pre-approval certificate to the dealer and sign for your vehicle.

My fiancé applied and got an ‘unable to process’ excuse, she was given a number to call. After speaking to one of the consultants, they said because she wasn’t a Standard Bank client they couldn’t offer pre-approval. NOWHERE on the website does it say that you have to be a client of Standard Bank, I check all terms and conditions!

What a complete waste of time.

I contacted the [protected] number to enquire about a card. This unprofessional lady by the name of Penny answered, and told me to call another department. According to the voice prompts - I was definitely in the correct department. When I asked her to put me through to the dept, as I was driving and could not write the number down - she says she cant. I then asked - Cant you get someone in that dept to contact me? She says 'Well I dont really know anyone in that department'

I am shocked by this uprofessionalism. Its not the service I am used to by Standard Bank, and I trust this matter will be dealt with accordingly. If not, then I will take it that you don't want my business any further.

I noticed my Bank Account had been unavailable when I logged onto Internet Banking this Monday. I emailed customer service but received an automated response saying this will be resolved within 24hours. I then called customer service on Wednesday and after being given the switchboard call centre run around I found out my account had been 'level 2 FICA frozen' FICA? But i had completed FICA requirements a long time ago(3-4 years ago) and recently(last 3 to 4 months) applied for a home loan & motor vehicle loan where FICA (proof of residence) documents were supplied. Why is it that my standard bank credit card was not affected? Called my branch and they confirmed this FICA issue for me and that they have recently had a few incidences regarding FICA and freezing of accounts. In the mean time, payments that were supposed to go off my account returned insufficient funds - this means extra bank charges. I was not notified of this new FICA requirement and my accounts frozen - this is not legal! Pathetic service & always passing the buck. I get better service and responses from other Banks - better credit card limits & interest rates and way faster loan applications response.

I have applied for a home loan almost 2 months ago. After a long wait they approved me for a completely different house. Now they have to re-approve me for the right house after several correspondence for them to fix it. When i want to escalate this, the call centre agent tells me that it is not out of the standard turnaround time, thus i can't escalate. But in the bigger picture it is out of turnaround time for a month and a half now. This is going to cost me a home, for i have to move by next month. If i call the complaints department, they give me a response time of 5 days. That is too late. Is there anyone i can speak to, to resolve this ASAP? I keep on hitting a brick wall.

I applied for a home loan on 3rd August and received three sms's confirming my on line application. On the 14th August they phoned me regards my employer. To this day i have not heard from Standard Bank again, not to say yes or no...almost as if they are telling me to go to hell! I have been banking at Standard Bank for almost 41 years and my account has been uplifted to a prestige account this month. On the 2nd of September i applied for a loan with Absa Bank Springs and the loan was granted within seven working days. A big compliment to Absa please ! With regards Standard Bank Home Loans, the service is the worst ever ! In fact it is non existent!

When we first defaulted we were approached by an external debt collector. We were placed on what was called a 70% rehab program. We started paying this amount and after the first month, I was called by the bank 2 find out why we were not paying the full amount. The gentleman I spoke 2 then said he is freezing the account & that Standard bank will call us. After 4 months i called the bank 2 find out what was happening. We were told that there is no recollection of this and that we need 2 pay the outstanding amount 2 avoid further action. I then contacted the debt collector who stated that she no longer deals with the account & that it has been handed back 2 the bank. When I got hold of the debt collector from standard bank, she stated she would get back 2 me but never, this was around Dec2007. In Jan when I contacted the bank again I was told that this lady no longer works there and that someone will contact me regarding the matter. No contact was received. I Then called the bank again and they still have no record of anything. I complained 2 hello perter the bank called. I am on debt review but the bank is still wanting 2 auction my house 4 defaulting.