Standard Bank SA Bewertungen 

Standard Bank Trustees: “Free Will” Came at a Cost

My late wife appointed Standard Bank Trustees as the executor of her estate after accepting their “free will” offer, believing they would professionally administer the estate and protect the interests of our minor child.

Unfortunately, that has not been my experience.

Since my wife’s passing in July 2015, Standard Bank Trustees have repeatedly failed to administer the estate efficiently and have neglected their responsibility to pay my child’s school fees from the estate funds, despite having sufficient funds available.

Key Concerns

* Repeated failure to finalise the estate.
* Ignoring numerous requests and follow-ups.
* Poor communication and lack of urgency.
* Failure to prioritise the welfare of a minor beneficiary.
* Delayed payment of school fees despite funds being available.

The School Fees Crisis

In December 2025, I informed Standard Bank Trustees that my child’s school fees had to be paid before the school reopened in January 2026.

My request was ignored.

After six months of letters, follow-ups, personal visits, and eventually obtaining legal representation, Standard Bank Trustees paid only a small portion of the outstanding fees.

During this period, they knew my child faced suspension from school due to unpaid fees.

To protect my child from the trauma and embarrassment of being excluded from school, I had to raise approximately R100,000 from my own funds within two days, despite the estate having more than enough money to cover these expenses.

Property Damage

Another serious concern relates to a property in the estate.

Insurance proceeds were paid to Standard Bank Trustees to carry out repairs after municipal damage. However, they authorised full payment to the contractor before confirming the repairs were completed, leaving the work unfinished.

As a result, I now have to appoint another contractor to complete and rectify the repairs at an estimated cost of over R500,000.

No Meaningful Resolution

Despite lodging numerous complaints with both the Master of the High Court and Standard Bank Trustees, I have received no meaningful response or satisfactory resolution.

My Warning to the Public

The term “free will” can be misleading. While the will itself may be free, the financial institution is appointed as the executor and earns executor’s fees from the estate.

My experience has shown that if an executor fails to act diligently, the real cost may ultimately be borne by the beneficiaries especially minor children.

As the saying goes: “All that glitters is not gold.”

This is the shit bank in the whole word
Do open a account with them if you do you will begg for your own money and the will not listen you they don’t care about customers
I can’t access to my own account my salary is stuck there for 2 weeks and they care my kids stay hungry they don’t care they don’t any emotions they don’t care

Terrible experience, having to hold the line for 30 minutes waiting for a consultant so that I can enquire about my R200 electricity token that I haven't received since Thursday the 24th and today is the 27th July 2026. It's the second time this is happening. I gave up on the previous query. Terrible Terrible experience.

After weeks of my claim being pushed from one person to another and absolutely no feedback I was put under the care of Sokhana S Sinama and if all your staff was as efficient,professional, friendly ad respectful you would not need a complaints department. This young lady sorted out the claim and advised me what was going on all the time and even made sure that the payment was in my account. She also advised me that the claim needed to be done under 2 separate claims and I am so sorry that the other claim is now not in her hands. I hope that the management recognise what she does for the face of SBIB, and let her teach the others how to treat these matters and how to handle the public. My 5 Star review is for her and I wish her well in her career.

Yoliswa Dobodo was amazing, she was patient,kind and so inspiring. It's people like her that makes businesses thrive. Thank you for all your assistance today

Just to say that I received excellent service from Lynn Mc Keith this morning at Garden route mall 😀
I did however feel for all the clients behind me in the que. More good staff like Lynn please!

The application process is mentally draining due lack of feedback regardless of the number of attempts to get feedback. No full attention to internal process.
Rustenburg (waterfall mall) brunch in the North West. #Not interested employee #

Utterly useless and incompetent customer service.
They have no clue what they’re doing.

Formal Complaint Regarding Instant Money Voucher Fraud and Poor Service

I am extremely disappointed with the service I have received from Standard Bank regarding an Instant Money voucher issue that has been ongoing for nearly eight days.

After contacting customer support for assistance, a consultant asked for my voucher number and informed me that the bank would change the PIN and resend it so that I could access my funds. Unfortunately, it appears that the voucher was instead used fraudulently, resulting in the loss of R3,000.

What is most concerning is that I have not received a satisfactory explanation or resolution. I was provided with reference number 8363559, yet every time I call, I am asked to repeat my entire story because there seems to be no record or progress on the case.

I trusted Standard Bank to protect my funds and provide competent customer service. Instead, I have experienced financial loss, frustration, and a lack of accountability. I expect a thorough investigation into this matter, clear feedback on what happened to my voucher, and a prompt resolution regarding the missing funds.

This experience has severely damaged my confidence in the bank, and I am deeply dissatisfied with how my case has been handled.

If I could give this bank a minus star rating I would. I've lived & worked in a number of countries & so have used many different banks & Standard Bank in SA is absolutely the worst I've ever experienced. Shocking customer service throughout the years I was with them & gave me incorrect information about non resident funds transfers. I know it was incorrect because after months of disputes with the bank, I hired an accountant who confirmed that the bank's interpretation of financial regulations was wrong. In the end I moved my savings out of SA with a financial company & avoided using the bank. One of the most stressful & unprofessional banks I've dealt with over the years. Ironically at the end of every email I received from bank staff was a "rate my service" button but it was always disabled so you could never actually rate their service! Probably a deliberate decision from the bank to stop negative ratings, of which I'm sure there would have been many.

We were assisted by Asiphe Jali at the York street branch, she was very helpful, patient even when the extra mile with helping us amend the address.

We have all our Personal and Business Banking products with Standard Bank. One of our bakkies got stolen and we urgently needed finance but did not want to use vehicle finance but rather extend our bond term and lend the money against there or increase our overdraft of Bizflex on the Business Side. We are 2 Directors

Bizflex had the wrong e main address on there system for me where they send the authentication apassword and it took 2 Business days to get this resolved. Did not go for this option.

The Home Loan story is something else. We owe R 80 k on a property that is worth R 2,4 Mil. The bond is paid up in 1 year so we had to apply for a Bond Extention to 30 years before we can get a re advance. The branch Consultants in Clearwater has no authority so I don't know what the point of having them there is. The Consultant could not extent the bond term and ended up phoning the Call Centre. I found this scary. Then after applying on line for a re advance a lady contacted me after 2 days and requested latest 2 years of Company Financials and a Income Expense Report from Myself.

On Monday the 22'nd of June I asked to be kept in the loop and the Lady came back to say that it is now with Credit. Can you believe I got a e mail this morning requesting an Income Expense Report for my Partner (Who is my wife) and again requesting the Company Financials (Signed) that I already Provided. We have in any case found alternative Finance with another Company that wants to do banking.

We are starting the process of Migrating our Accounts to FNB. Sorry Standardbank I don't think you are going to survive as a thriving bank in South Africa going forward if this is the situation.

Regards Neville Orsmond

Juliet Berkatt at Forex Standard Bank Port Elizabeth helped my wife LE Visser is a very professional, friendly and helpful way with an overseas payment.Your assistance was highly appreciated! Pieter Visser

Poor service, I logged a call to get my car ownership document. Seing the process was taking longer than indicated, when I make follow up sadly I am told no notes on my request and the process will start afresh, loosing potential buyer in the process and I am just told sorry.

Yesterday 11th/06/2026 I transferred money from std bank to capitec because I needed to use the money on the same day as STD APP WAS OFFLINE but guess what, the money is still not reflecting in my capitec account, STANDARD BANK'S SERVICE IS SO VERY POOR

I did not online application that was approved on my app pending supporting documents. I came into the Sandton City branch to provide the supporting documents. The Consultant Hope help me and started a new application which was again approved and pending supporting documents. Hope gave me her email address to send her the documents so she can have them forwarded to finalize the application.

I sent a email to find to find out what has happened with my application since I have been waiting for about more than three days(more if we counted the weekend) the Friday I came into the bank which will make it a full week since I approval.

When I was in the branch I could see that the consultant was avoiding to deal with me and pushed me to one of her colleagues to assist which she could not do either since this application as attached to Hope, if I would have to proceed with Petunia she would need to start a fresh application all over again and this would affect my credit score negatively.

I wasted over two hours at the bank being sent around and all for being told that my application has been declined because of no activity on my account.
This all could have honestly been avoided if the consultant had just communicated with me instead of me having to come to the branch.

Standard Bank Has Held Our Funds for 13 Days Without Providing a Clear Explanation

My husband, Robert Neal Kettlewell, received an incoming transfer of R245,620.10 on 28 May 2026. The funds are reflected on his Standard Bank account, yet after 13 days they remain unavailable for use.

During this period, we have dealt with multiple Standard Bank departments, including Forex, Fraud, Complaints Resolution, branch staff, and various escalation teams. We have received multiple reference numbers and conflicting explanations, but no clear answer as to why our funds remain restricted.

On 11 June 2026, I participated in a conference call with Standard Bank representative Portia Mosia and Carol from Navy Federal Credit Union, the originating bank in the United States.

During that call, Standard Bank advised that it required confirmation from Navy Federal. However, when asked when Standard Bank had allegedly contacted Navy Federal, no date could be provided. No proof of any verification request was produced, and the Standard Bank representative was unable to explain when the request was sent, how it was sent, or whether any response had been received.

Most concerning was that the Navy Federal representative appeared unaware of any prior contact from Standard Bank regarding this transaction.

If Standard Bank had legitimate concerns regarding the transaction, why were the funds not returned to the originating institution within a reasonable period? Alternatively, why have the funds remained restricted for more than 13 days without a final determination, a clear explanation, or a resolution?

At present, the funds are neither available to the account holder nor returned to the remitting bank. We have effectively been deprived of access to our own funds while receiving little meaningful information regarding the status of the investigation.

This delay has adversely affected a residential property transfer transaction and has caused significant inconvenience, financial prejudice, and emotional distress.

We are simply requesting transparency, accountability, and the release of funds that have been reflected on the account since 28 May 2026.

Reference Numbers: Multiple references issued by Standard Bank in relation to the same transaction.

Amount: R245,620.10
Date Credited: 28 May 2026

I am already regretting my decision less than seven days after opening my account. On day one, there were delays at the Winifred branch. On day three, I went to the Maponya branch to activate online banking, but I was told there was an issue with my captured details and it could not be completed. Today, I returned to the Winifred branch and was told there were no issues; the online banking was activated, but now when I log in, I cannot proceed because it says my contact number is incorrect, and the account balance does not match the one I received via text message.

Disingenuous, likely duplicitous. They don’t even bother responding. Business banking is a joke, personal banking not far behind. They do not do what they say they will do, and heavily overcharge.