CO Reviews 28

the customer services dial in simply does not work, doesn't recognise cell phone key strokes, so completely useless - had to go into branch....

Ford Credit and their partner ABSA (FC/ABSA) should be avoided as far as possible if you are in the market for vehicle finance. Especially if you plan on settling the account and keeping the vehicle.

After 6 long years (72 months) of paying the installments diligently every single month, without missing a deadline, over R70k in interest and proudly settling the account at full term. I requested the natis certificate or vehicle title deed.

If you want your natis certificate from FC/ABSA, you will have to work a little harder and pay extra to get it. Upon my request I received 3 options, collect from my nearest ABSA branch or their office in Auckland Park - at my expense and time wasted. OR I can have it couriered to my address at a further cost of R170.

Can you imagine after paying several 10s of 1000s of R in interest they will expect you to pay even more and take a day of leave to go an sort your vehicle ownership out yourself at a licensing office, you are not their problem any more your account is settled.

We have settled vehicle finance loans in the past with MFC and the post settlement service was great. MFC/Nedbank promptly transferred ownership and sent all relevant documents via courier to our address all for free.

But upon settling with FC/ABSA it becomes clear they have extracted every R & cent possible from you and you are now worthless to them thus no further effort will be going into any request you may have.

Corporates love their hashtags and slogans UX, customer is key, all empty words. ABSA says “Your story matters”, well you read mine and I hope it can help you make an informed decision when you find yourself looking for vehicle finance. It’s not always the financing itself, but the post settlement treatment you receive counts as well.

Last year November 2025 I reported a fraud situation to ABSA they never kept to their time frame of replying, you cannot get to speak to the investigating person you leave messages send many emails call regularly but no reply. I’ve been with ABSA for around 25yrs, treating me like they have for a fraud case over 500k is not acceptable I have lodged my complaint with the Ombudsman but who knows how far I may get. Worst bank service I’ve ever experienced suggest other customers carefully consider where they bank. The South African Police service informed me that the syndicate runs Deep and that bank employees are releasing your information to the fraudsters. Hence the fraudster knowing all my information and transactions. Wondering how many other customers have experienced the same experience.

Wait on phone to make an appointment with a consultant at Westville branch
I made 2 calls and waited forever Kept me on hold until i lost patience
Complained to appropriate channels NO RESPONSE

I am extremely disappointed with ABSA Bank’s handling of my request logged on 02 March 2026.
I requested a service that ABSA promised would be completed within 2 business days, meaning it should have been resolved by 04 March 2026. It has now been one week, and my request remains unresolved.
Shockingly, ABSA is now refusing to assist me, claiming my complaint is “older than 40 days.” This is factually incorrect—my initial request was submitted within the 40-day window. The delay is entirely due to ABSA’s own slow response.
This is non-compliance and poor customer service. I am not willing to accept being penalized for a delay caused by ABSA itself. I expect this matter to be resolved immediately and for ABSA to provide a formal explanation for this mismanagement.
I am also escalating this complaint publicly because their internal systems and service standards are failing, and this is a serious breach of trust.
Requested Action:
Immediate resolution of my request
Written explanation of why ABSA failed to meet its promised service timeline
Assurance that internal processes will be corrected to prevent this from happening to other customers

Worst banking institute out there. I went to our branch. ONE Teller working, servings suburb of 8. An elderly Gentleman couldn't understand, so he was taken to the ATM because, have you ever, you had to deposit at the ATM not inside the bank. So sitting ducks. Tyoday I get a message to say my card is ready, I went in 4 times. One teller working, the other doing a fabulous job of shoving papers. I spent R200 airtime trying to get hold of a consultant, anyone wanting to know the products they offer I can tell you instead of waisting your time. You get through to a consultant when the recording actually says "personal loans" please hold while I try, notice try, transfer your money you to another consultant. Get through to that consultant, let me transfer you. Bottom line ABSA doesn't have qualified consultants who are educated on their products. I called Standard Bank, it was like speaking to an angel. Listened carefully to my story, made notes and they will be phoning me tomorrow. I wss with what was then Allied, now ABSA. I have been loyal for 32 years. Time is as good as a holiday. I'm counting on STD after I spoke to the very educated consultant today. I strongly recommend you do homework. I am fluent in profanity but ABSA are not worth it

I am beyond frustrated with the service I’ve received from Absa Group.

My banking access is currently blocked because the ABSA app is not available in the country I’m in. I called support and clearly explained multiple times that I am not in South Africa and the app does not exist in my local App Store. Despite repeating this over and over, the consultant simply did not listen to that key detail.

After wasting a significant amount of time explaining the exact same situation, we finally agreed that I could verify via email instead of the app. Then I was told that, as a private banking client, they couldn’t assist me and that I needed to speak to my private banker. Fine — I accepted that and moved on.

I contacted my banker and once again had to repeat the entire scenario multiple times. Her response? “Sorry, I can’t help you. Internet banking needs to assist.” When I explained that internet banking had already directed me to her, there was no solution offered.

It has now been over 20 days and I still cannot access my own funds.

This level of service is absolutely unacceptable. No coordination, no accountability, and no urgency — just endless back-and-forth while I remain locked out of my account. Extremely disappointing.

Awaiting a refund from Temu. Temu already requested and approved refund. I paid via Apple Pay. A week later and numerous emails, still now refund nor any response from Absa

I've really been shocked with ABSA's service of late. I wrote to my private banker last week to inform him of my alarm about interest rates hikes set to start in January. He said he would call on Monday to discuss which he failed to do. This has been the final straw.

Even though it is the busiest time of the year, based on ABSA upping credit card rates, the bank's ridiculous fees and underwhelming customer service, especially for a private client of over 2 decades, I opened accounts with Capitec on 22/12 and what a joyous experience - staff are professional and kind (imagine being treated as a VALUED customer - it's a shocking to the system after the way I was treated at ABSA). Even the 'ordinary' monthly interest rate on the credit card is lower than what I am being charged by ABSA. I cannot wait to finally being done with corporate exploitation and lack of care.

The most recent email 'campaign' yet another example of the ridiculous excuse of a banking intuition. A massive monthly price increase of 50%, and they do not even include the link in the emailer but instead make client go search for it on their website AND the instructions are not even factually correct. PLUS the pricing document for the new year is listed as 2025. What competence

I CANNOT tell how happy I am that their flagrant ineptitude and wildly overpriced services have pushed me to leave in favour of Capitec. I am going to do a happy dance the day I have closed all my Absa accounts. They are a positively abyssal company

Absa is the worse bank in south Africa for trustworthiness. My mother in law has been banking with them for over 60 years. 3 weeks ago suddenly money is being taken out her account for online purcheses like she in, Uber, Netflix etc. Not once did she receive a notification to authorize the transactions. As soon as she saw this she contacted me and I tried to contact the fraud department of absa. I tried 3 times m, holding on for about 30 min and then eventually when it rings the call is cut off. I immediately set all my mother in laws limits to zero and told het'r to use her other bank card from another bank if she need s something until we can go to the bank and sort it out. We'll 3 days later the same thing happened again. Went into the bank and asked them what is going on and they called the fraud line. Spoke to the lady on the other side and asked her how it is possible that my mother in law did not get a request for authorisation and how it is possible that anything can go off if the limits are set to zero. All she could say it must go for investigation and it will take 15 to 20 working days. We'll those transactions went through although it was reported within 30 min of it happening, no stop or reversal was done???. Yesterday my mother in law phoned again the same think is happening but at lest this time absa send her a request to authorize or stop. My question is this. Why if the card is stopped and the limits is zero that thus crap can still go on. Thus bring me to a conclusion that the problem is internal and the scams are internal. The same thing happened to another lady at the old age home and she lost everything and absa did not refund 1 cent. The problem with banks are they tell you your money is safe with them and then they do not take responsibility when thus type of thing happens. I suggest to people out there that bank with absa to rather get another banking institute like nedbank and know your money is safe plus you are not overcharged in banking fees like absa

Quite literally the worst bank in the world. In 10 years they:
Have overcharged
Never answer the phone - ever
Never answer emails on time, it takes days
They are illiterate when they reply
Never answer the question
Ignorant of basic banking practises
Arrogant
Never give a name to reply to
Bounce you around different departments, all with strange acronyms, until you give up
Don't understand any legislation
work from home and have screaming kids in the background

Unless you want to be driven insane by incompentence, avoid this bank like the plague.

Absa USED to be the best bank in SA. Those days are long gone it seems. I am seriously considering stepping away after 45 years

Rewards program??? LOL. It’s an absolute joke.

You reach a certain tier, and then—like clockwork—ABSA conveniently downgrades you to Tier 1 due to a supposed “system glitch” or similar excuse. And of course, it takes weeks (sometimes months) to fix, during which time you lose out on the rewards you’ve earned.
To make matters worse, ABSA failed to inform me that my private banker had changed. I had been trying to reach Gerhard Malan, whose number I had saved, only to be met with silence—no calls answered, no messages rep**** to. Eventually, after contacting the ABSA call center, I was told Gerhard was no longer my banker and that I’d been reassigned to Siraaj Abrahams. No courtesy notification, no handover, nothing.

I reached out to Siraaj on 16/09/2025, explained the situation in detail, and was told he’d follow up with the rewards team. Today is 07/10/2025—and still, nothing has been resolved.

If you’re considering ABSA for their rewards program, do yourself a favour and look elsewhere. There are far better options in the market that actually deliver on their promises.

Absa is the worst institution on the planet. They will do everything in their power to make their customers life a living hell. Block your access to your financial info. Set up debt orders so you get a mark on your record and only notify you after they report you to the credit regulator. They will impose a 90 day fine for a year. I can go on and on and on. I HATE absa and every single person who works there.

I am really loosing my trust and hope with this Red bank. Few months ago I have been on a back and forth with them regarding my late grand mothers estate and they have no intentions of taking responsibility and assisting beneficiaries as they initially promised. And that incident in particular has made me uncomfortable as their client because I bank with them as well. So I recently travelled overseas and prior to my travel I enquired if both my credit and ultimate accounts qualified to use the international lounge at the ORT airport and I was told yes, now I travelled in July and made use of the lounge, my ultimate card was declined and I was told I didnt meet their criteria for lounge access , of which according to my knowledge I was in good standing and when I sweiped my credit card I was granted access. 2 weeks later they debited that lounge rate from my credit card claiming I didnt qualify for that benefit, which is nonsense, because 1. I enquired 2 weeks before my travel and was told I qualified. 2. Based on their criteria I met and exceeded it and lastly why couldnt the lounge deny me access the way they did with the cheque card instead of letting me use the 'free' benefit and later charge me for it. This is really not on , you are ripping customers off and stop falsey advertising your products.

Good day all.

I've placed an withdrawal out my vault markets forex account.

Today I've phoned absa to check how far my withdrawal is. They told me there's no withdrawal no transactions to my account.

I'm lost I don't know where my money went to guys.

This is bad

Absa’s Systemic Violations of Consumer Rights & Banking Laws, they are committing fraud, they closed my account So they can sweep everything under the rug as I was asked by the ombudsman to give written evidence of their response, their banker Solomon called to say they will refund the error they he closed my account, when you call them now they don't answer. Please do not open a business account with them under any circumstances.
As a victim of Absa’s predatory practices, I detail their unlawful actions:
Fraudulent Misrepresentation & CPA
Deceptive Advertising (CPA Section 40): Absa promoted a "transparent" business account but concealed the "unauthorised cheque balance" fee. This "bait marketing" misled customers about true costs.
Engineered Penalties Monthly admin fees deliberately forced my account into a negative balance
Unlawful Fee Structure & Debt Trapping
Self-Created Penalties: Absa manufactured a negative balance *via their own fees*, then penalized me for it—an abusive loop violating CPA Section 48 (unfair fees) and the Banks Act’s "fair treatment" mandate.
Debt Trapping Scheme By blocking closure and charging penalties for their manufactured deficit, Absa created an inescapable cycle mirroring "advance fee fraud." Criminal Intent & Regulatory Breaches
Systematic Concealment: Fees were buried in fine print or omitted entirely, breaching CPA "plain language" rules. Breach of NCA/Banks Act: If the account included an overdraft, penalty fees were unreasonably disclosed and applied, violating the National Credit Act.
South African Reserve Bank

The absolute worst bank in South Africa- NO customer service and urgency to get complaints resolved, just stalling tactics to keep their clients quiet- every day a different excuse and every day i get told “tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow”

I am sick to my stomach with this bank

Zero stars.
Unfair treatment
I was invited to apply for their Request for Proposal for recruitment.
The process was so demanding, onerous and long that I had to employ a Specialist to complete the information.
After all this was done, they moved the milestone and informed participants a few days before Christmas and this was months after the close!

I'm sharing my heartbreaking story to raise awareness about the failures of our system. My ex-husband accumulated R968,000 in maintenance arrears. After a lengthy and traumatic court process, he was finally ordered to pay R700,000 into my Absa account from his provident fund on April 14, 2025.

The payment is supposed to be made within 21 days, but my children and I can't wait that long. We're struggling to survive without basic necessities like food. I applied for a small loan of R3,500 to feed my children, but Absa declined my application due to unauthorized overdrafts of R245 in my checking account and R155 in my credit card account.

Meanwhile, my ex-husband, also an Absa client, has purchased a new R1 million car and enjoys promotions and multiple credit cards with Absa, which he pays on time.

My children have been out of school for over two years due to the prolonged court process, and we often go without hot water and food. How can Absa claim to support survivors of domestic violence when their policies seem to enable abusers?

If my story truly matters, Absa would take immediate action to support me and my children. Instead, we're left to struggle.

#AbsaYourStoryMatters #DomesticViolenceAwareness #FinancialAbuse #SurvivorSupport #JusticeForSurvivors