CO Reviews 38

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

I called Absa private assist to get my statement date changed in May of 2024. The consultant obliged to assist and the call ended with them assuring me I would received my cheque account statement on the first of June. June came and went. Since then I’ve called Absa every month, speaking to a new consultant who assures me they’ll help and provide feedback but never. It’s now December and I’m yet to get my statement on the correct date. By far the worst service I ever experienced

I am 42 years and have lived in 5 countries. Typically, I rarely leave reviews on the internet, good or bad. For that to happen, something must almost be life changingly good (or in this case, bad).
I have never in my life experienced such poor service anywhere in the world as I have from ABSA. Yes, that includes South African Government departments! Even home affairs occasionally gets it right.
It was therefore no surprise when I came here and saw that ABSA has nearly 30,000 1 star reviews. When your business hallmark incompetence and apathy, your reviews typically reflect your company mantra.
So, in my case, I am trying to update contact information. Yes, something so simple, so trivial, is a major issue at ABSA. South African banks played a big part in South Africa being grey listed in 2023. “Know your customer” and “Customer Due Diligence” are two aspects that need to be maintained by banks for obvious reasons, having clients that you have no idea of where they live, their contact details, etc. is a problematic for banks (obviously not for ABSA). So, as this is a key part of being a bank, you would think ABSA would be thrilled to comply with international frameworks?
I don’t hold much hope that this review will motivate ABSA to get started on the large and daunting task of updating my contact information.

I am disgusted with the service I have received. I’ve started an application on a claim on the 13/09/2024. I had to keep calling to query how far things was. I called again on the 02/10/2024 to query what is happening as I didnt get feeback just to be told that they will settle, Why do i need to call and why was this feedback never provided. I was given a form to complete and return which I did the same day. I was told by the agent to send it back to her and she will send to the accounts team and money will be paid out in 2-3 days. Gues what im still waiting. I called again to day and spoke to Julie so advised that TRUDY will only be sending the form today as she was busy. When I asked to lay a complaint she said I cant I need to email in my concerns. I had to call to get feedback on the application and was told I’d receive a call with feedback the following day. I have not received any feedback at all. I had to use my airtime again to follow up with them today and requested to be called back should the call disconnect as they place you on long holds and make you answer 1000 questions at the start of the call forgetting that they’re using your airtime to do this. The call disconnected and no one called me back.

Always have a good manner on welcoming customers. And better on attending to the needs and helping with the solutions.

I am disgusted with the service I have received. I’ve started an application a couple of days ago. Yesterday I had to call to get feedback on the application and was told I’d receive a call with feedback the following day. I have not received any feedback at all. I had to use my airtime again to follow up with them today and requested to be called back should the call disconnect as they place you on long holds and make you answer 1000 questions at the start of the call forgetting that they’re using your airtime to do this. The call disconnected and no one called me back. I bought airtime AGAIN and requested so nicely to be called back should the call disconnect and the response was “we don’t do that here, this is an inbound environment!!! MY NAME IS KELLY DAVEY AND IM GOING TO REVIEW ABSA EVERY DAY UNTIL MY QUERY IS RESOLVED BY THIS UNPROFESSIONAL COMPANY. I would not recommend Absa to anyone and going to change banks ASAP!!

ABSA is currently running a scam whereby they will register your credit card (without your consent) for SMS notifications whenever you make a purchase etc. Each SMS is charged at 60c, which is about a 600% increase in the cost of an SMS to them. You cannot opt out over the phone. You have to go to a branch. These fees are charged in addition to your transaction and account fees and the massive interest rates. They will not stop until you have no credit left and you cannot escape. Pure evil.