First National Bank [FNB] South Africa
reviews and complaints

I have rarely dealt with a company so lacking in customer service as the FNB Card division.

If you look at my previous posts, I have repeatedly asked for them to either fix the charges or SUE ME! And heaven behold - I was finally charged R35.23 fee for a SECTION 129123 NOTICE FEE. This was on 02 February 2010.

It is now almost three weeks later and I still have no letter in my possession. How can any company be so incompetent? They instead keep phoning me weekly to inquire when I will be paying.

PLEASE please please just hand over this account. I realize you first want to add a few more R175 fines onto it, but when we finally go to court you are going to be looking like ******. I have sent mails, asked via the telephone, and still you simple refuse.

I receive a regular income paid via EFT in US$ to my account every month. The payment is made on the same Thursday every month. I've been receiving payments like this for 10 years so this is not something I'm making up but a definite trend I have noticed and documented:

1. Forex is always generally moving up or down. I check daily because of my income.

2. Whenever forex is in an UPWARD (rand getting weaker) trend, FNB calls me the day afterward (Friday) to notify me of the deposit. In other words, they get rid of the cash as quickly as they can before it goes up more.

3. When forex is in a DOWNWARD (Rand getting stronger) trend, it can take up to 3 weeks for them to pay me. So long as the Rand is getting stronger, they hold my money. The moment it starts to go up, they pay.

I estimate that over the 10 years of this tactic I loose between R200 and R500 month depending on the exchange rate just because they pay me at the exchange rate that is most effective for them.

Take this across thousands of people and accounts and it can add up pretty quickly!

Really dishonest FNB!

With FNB's decision to now charge an exorbitant amount for paper statements I requested a switch to e-mail statements last month. I usually receive my paper statements around the 6th of the month but have had no e-mail statements as yet. I even checked my spam mail in case. My charges are also quite high this month. Please can someone check to see that I have not been charged for a paper statement and explain why I have not received my latest statement.

I would just like to say i will never do buisness with FNB again. i took up a smart spend loan with fnb last year 30-june 2008. i was paying my loan every month never missed a payment since i had the loan. i recently wanted to pay the loan up in full and i phoned fnb collections department. to find out how much i was outstanding. now this is where service started getting poor. firstly i think the consultants are not fully skilled or they just don't know wats going on. i asked for a settlement quote where i was quoted two diffrent quotes. i was email'd the settlment quote figure i then maid the payment via internet banking. & a lady by the name of Ruth Masilela assisted me. i was then told my smart spend loan has been paid in full & i was email'd the confirmation letter to say my loan is settled. since the 30-09-2009 its been paid up but to my amazement it's not paid up my accound has been debited twice and i recieved two rejected debit order's. im upset & i will take further action. because when i phone i get put on hold. Ruth Masilela assured me they wont debit the account but stil no service. but il continue til my cry has been answer'd i will take it to the ombudsman.

What nonsense is it that FNB freezes an account for loosing a card ? surly this is breach of contract. I am in credit on my account, yes, my money is in the account, i send someone to midrand to pick up goods while i try to process an internet transfer. i live and work in lenasia, so no i am outa pocket for costs sending someone 200 km (round trip) to go collect a parcel, and i cannot even use my money to pay for the parcel. I was told i will have to wait till i collect my new card before i can use the account, but will have to wait till my card is at the branch which may or may not be this week. i am purchasing something that is on special, if the deal falls through what recourse do i have, can i claim damages from fnb for the difference between the actual price and the special price?

I applied for a bond in FNB seeing as I've been a customer of theirs for more than 10 years, my car is even financed through them and I have a credit card with them and my salary goes there too. Imagine my surprise when all the other banks (Standard Bank and Absa) accept my bond application but FNB declines it. When I enquire about it the consultant says I have 'too few accounts' and continues to say 'YOU NEED TO OWE AND PAY LARGE SUMS OF INSTALMENTS ON DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS TO QUALIFY'. You get plenty of points if you are in huge debts according to them. What rubbish is this? Since when is it a crime to have few debts and choose to pay for items bought using cash or credit card instead of opening accounts in different stores? This is ridiculous and so disappointing from FNB.

I have fixed arrangements with FNB Homeloans and am within R1 500 of paying back my arrears. I have kept to my end of the bargain to the T but am still harassed by their ‘Agents’ (Sannie Home Bond 007, 5 license to irritate). The worst thing is that these agents phone at times when one wants to sit back and relax and not be harassed by people who are controlled by a ‘system’ and do not have the training to confirm on the system that the client is indeed not defaulting. All this after having a judgement by the same kind people revoked because they went ahead with court action while I was keeping to my end of the bargain! Nice! FNB, please use your energy better than to have adamant agents harassing innocent people to the point where one loose it and swears at the poor kid who tries to intimidate you and do not want to understand any reason!

I complained about my bank charges debit order on the 9th of July 2009 and was called back and told that my debit order for the bank charges would be changed from the 20th of the month to the 28th of the month, when it comes of on the 20th it puts my bank account into negative, but not only that i had R300 paid into my account yesterday for my child's nappies and the bank charges took R84 off of that amount. Now i don't have enough to buy my child's nappies.

First of all when i started using FNB i was under the impression that the fees where R66 a month as was advertised, now i'm paying R84 a month only 2-3 months after moving to FNB, this is not cheap. I used less bank fees with ABSA bank. I am not happy and i'm contemplating leaving FNB if this bad service continues.

Also your SMS system seems to be not working properly either, i only receive SMS's the next day when things are paid into my account and taken off my account.

I thought after switching over to FNB, banking will be fairly straight forward, however the homeloans staff at FNB Sunninghill after really a waste of time, in particular Anita Marais. Whenever you call, she is never available and doesn't return voice mails. She doesn't reply
to emails either and you have to physically walk into the branch just to chat with her.

This is plain down ridiculous! She is always in a bad mood and never apologises for not getting back to you...and to top it off, she is the only home loans agent! I am signing up a home loan with them, not the other way around! I am giving them my business, not the other way around!

Also, she is not very clued up either with current home loan trends and basic information regarding home loans...what is this?

I hope FNB management look into this if they value their customers!

This is now the third time I've had to air my views regarding this bank. As mentioned previously, when you approached me for my business, all that I am now doing was discussed with Owen Gouws (account manager) and Sylvia Gradige (Sales Rep). Amazingly, when you were desperate to get my business, all we discussed had positive promises made - obviously to rake my business in. Based on all of this, I decided to give you my business account, afterall, your moto is: 'HOW CAN WE HELP YOU?'

Now, I approach you to assist me as we discussed 6 months ago, when I received all the promises - guess what - suddenly those promises you made are null and void. I place a complaint on this site, you contact me, get me to waste my time by visiting your branch only for you to a week later tell me it was in vain.

Half the problem though is the fact that my account manager changes 3 times in 6 months, so the one who initially made the promises is no longer around to fulfill them - yet to me, FNB made the promises, as this is who I saw, not a specific individual.

If we had not discussed this 6 months ago, I would not be harping on it... but we did and I made my decisions based on it.

I am very disappointed at the service that was given to me at the FNB pavilion. I needed to take out money from my 32 day savings account and they said I could not. I do understand the terms and conditions of the 32 day plan but it was an emergency because I needed to pay my unisa fees yet they said I could only take it out for a DEATH or If someone was in hospital. It is my money I do not understand why I could not take out my money, I was even willing to pay the ridiculous penalty fee of R250 but they refused. It was only an amount of R1000, I understand that I need to place a 32 day notice but I had no time to come into a branch and apply for It as I am currently very busy at work, so all I asked for was a little bit of understanding but I did not get that. Instead of helping me save money they are costing me more money !

FNB send me a letter that I can upgrade my account to a silwer cheque account. seeing that I am still a student I decided not to do it. After 3 months I got a bankstatement and saw that I now have a cheque account, how can they cahnge my account without my permission? The bankcharges for a cheque account is very high, esspecialy for a student. I went to FNB the following day and talked to Hannes. I told him that they must change it to a student account and refund all the bankcharges. he told me that they won't be able to refund the bankcharges, because i signed a contract.I asked hi if I can see my contract, as I am possitive that it is not in there. he then walked away and another friendly lady helped me and said that they will change my account and reverse all charges, that was almost 3 weeks ago, how can it take so long.

Every week I get a phone call from FNB homeloans stating that my payment date is on a different date, each time i have to explain the whole story to a different person. Each time notes are made according to the consultant...does anyone read the notes? Incompetence is the norm i suspect!

Please can someone with authority sort out my problem. I will not speak to any junior person as non of them can make a note on the system or even read the previous persons note.

our service is even worst than that of the government!

Yesterday my FNB debit card was declined twice even though there was more than enough money in my account. I had to go to the nearest atm which was absa to draw money to pay and so incurred a R10.50 non fnb bank charge! Imagine the embarrassment not being able to pay with your card and the person telling me its declined! i wanted to check using online banking but this too didnt work.

Ever since I can remember I have banked with FNB. I started with a Bob JNR, then Bob T, then student acc & finally last year I changed to a cheque acc. I bought my 1st car with FNB & am planning to take out my 1st bond with the bank as well.

When I changed my account to a cheque, I was promised my bank charges capped at R60 as that was my main concern coming from a savings acc, like a student acc. This was never the case. I have been charged standard rates on a gold cheque acc. How is it that FNB could take as much as they wanted from me without my signature being anywhere agreeing to that?

The call centre was not much help & just referred me back to my branch. I found the time to go in & discuss this. It was discovered that it was the employee that had converted my acc who is responsible for placing me on the wrong plan, which has charged me 200% more.

Unfortunately the only lady that could make a call on whether I would get MY money back, Naiomi, was not at work. I was promissed a call by her today with an answer. Its 21:30 & no call.

Im probably going to be blamed as well for not checking but if compitent staff was employeed this would not happen. I trusted my bank.

It's with utter amazement that I look at all the promises that were made when I was recruited as a client, obviously to rake my business in because you recognised my potential. Now, as was discussed at the beginning of the six months, I call upon the promises that were made in this discussion. Should I be surprised that I'm thrown with red tape from all angles. Suddenly, it dawns upon me that those were actually not the only promises that were never kept. I find it unbelievable how in this age in South Africa, where service is detrimental to all companies, they spend so much time recruiting you, but none trying to keep you. Unbelievable though, when I come and tell you that I've moved my business elsewhere - surprisingly, you act shocked. But Why? you suddenly shout, conveniently forgetting all that you did not do when we initially met.

On Saturday the 19th of September I went to Look and Listen at Clearwater Mall to buy myself a CD with my ebucks. When I got to the tills to pay the lady told me that Ebucks was off line for most of the week, but that she will try to swipe to see if it goes thru. She tried twice to no avail. I had to pay cash for the CD. This is actually the 3rd time that I had to pay cash at Look and Listen because of ebucks. What is the use of having ebucks if you have problems accessing it. I only use my ebucks to buy CDs.

Myself like many people signed up for FNb's R66 a month account. The account fees then went up to R79.00 which I cant afford. I called the call centre and asked to downgrade which they refused to do, and I was told to go into a branch to do this. Why should I do this if I applied for the account online? Wake up!

I have banked with FNB ever since I started working. Not only that, I have WORKED for this bank and I must say that I am sick and tired of being *** by large corporations! I have an investment account with FNB where they are mandated to debit my cheque account on the 21st of each month and credit the my FNB investment account.Guess what?My account was debited on the 20th (a day before I ACTUALLY get paid!)..There I was at the grocery store getting a few things and surprise surprise...INSUFFICIENT FUNDS!All because FNB couldn’t keep its grubby hands off MY MONEY for 1day!That is just plain disgusting! There I was with egg on my face-No FUNDS AVAILABLE!I then proceeded to a Standard Bank ATM (because they obviously did not cash in on the business opportunity to erect an ATM in my complex, never mind the fact that ABSA and STD-their two biggest competitors-have woken up to customer's needs!) to see if I could do a balance enquiry. I WILL BE CLAIMING those few rands-I will NOT be liable to pay interchange fees!If this is how FNB treats its customers, i best start looking for another bank!

Finally got the EBUCKS fee reversed...but it doesnt end there. I received an sms last week regarding an amount due, called FNB call center [protected] spoke to some dumb nut whom informed me to ignore the Sms as the Ebucks membership fee had just been reversed, my account is not outstanding...fine, received another sms I ignored it cause i was told its sorted out. Today i called the automated balance enquiry line, still theres an amount outstanding, spoke to a consultant Sharon who advised me there is an amount outstanding for R148.43 that was invoiced on the 120909 for an annual VISA card fee but it was due on the 080909, does THIS MAKE SENSE, AN AMOUNT IS DUE BEFORE THE DATE ITS INVOICED? How the HELL can it be due on the 8th Sept if it was invoiced on the 12th Sept? Fair enough il pay it, but FNB's level of communication to their customers is just pathetic AND believe it or not, i was told by Sharon if i am billed with interest or late payment fees for this amount, I NEED TO COMPLAIN ON THE WEBSITE TO GET IT SORTED OUT AGAIN! Thanks FNB, like i dont have a job to do, I have all the time to sit and type out complaints to get things sorted out!