Capitec denies owing aggrieved client

Capitec Bank says it does not owe money to its Gauteng client who had claimed to be owed more than R13,000 for a deposit he had paid to hire a car for a month.

Business man Romeo Matjila approached Sowetan Consumer last month to complain about the apparent ill-treatment from Capitec after he started complaining to them about a R13,200 that was reflecting in his credit card account but could not access it. Matjila said the money was initially reserved by Avis Car Hire in Krugersdorp as a deposit when he was hiring a car from them late last year.

According to their agreement, Avis would release the money back into his account on returning the vehicle. Matjila said the company stuck to the agreement and released the funds but, for some reason, he could not access them although the money reflected in his bank statement. The matter was escalated to Capitec but there was no resolution.

However, in their response to Sowetan Consumer after the article was published, Capitec said it did not owe Matjila money as he had overdrawn his account.

“Capitec confirms that Romeo Matjila is an existing banking client and that he used his Capitec Bank credit card on 27 August 2021 to place a hold on his Capitec card to secure his Avis car hire. After the hold was removed from the client’s account, the client had full access to his funds, which he utilised. Avis then processed a transaction of R13 218.69 from the client’s account, however there were insufficient funds, which resulted in Mr Matjila having a negative balance. The client did not enquire or dispute anything at this stage,” said Bukelwa Bonqo on behalf of the bank.

“Forty-five days later, Capitec Bank performed a CWA chargeback as part of the bank’s due diligence process for when accounts are overdrawn. This is to retrieve the funds and avoid incurring a loss for the bank if the money has been paid to the merchant on behalf of the client. In addition, according to MasterCard rules, the merchant is obliged to collect the money within seven calendar days. In Mr Matjila’s case, we processed the charge back because his account was overdrawn with the invoiced amount as well as the banking fees charged. In conclusion, we can confirm that the client is not due any money from Capitec Bank,” she added.

Matjila was not satisfied with the response and said he would take the matter to a small claims court.