Absa has pledged to apologise and reimburse customers who were overcharged on their credit cards following errors that the bank made in its interest rate calculations. According to reports, thousands of customers were affected and the faux pas is set to cost the bank, a division of Barclays Africa Group, millions of Rands to rectify.
In a statement sent to Justmoney, Absa said: “Absa can confirm that an internal review at the end of 2013 uncovered instances of incorrect debit interest related to certain credit card customers who had been in arrears. Absa took immediate action to rectify the systems calculation error and is taking all reasonable steps to apologise to and inform affected customers so that they can be fully reimbursed. All affected customers have already been identified and our current focus is on completing the remediation process with affected customers. We have made significant progress in this regard and the error does not currently affect customers beyond those already identified.”
This incident highlights the importance of monitoring all your statements to identify any discrepancies for all of your accounts, whether a bank account or a store card.
According to the Business Day, this is not the first time that Absa have made such an error on its interest calculations on its credit card. The bank made assurances that it has put measures in place to prevent any further incidences. At this stage, it is unclear what the reputational fall out the bank will suffer from the latest incident.
“We have accordingly notified the relevant regulators, including the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). We will continue to contact the remaining affected customers to ensure the issue is fully remediated. Affected customers can call our dedicated helpline (0861 000 224) for more information,” said the Absa spokesperson.
Incidents such as these are referred to the Banking Ombudsman.
Justmoney contacted the National Credit Regulator (NCR) but it was unable to provide comment at the time of publication.