Cheques were withdrawn in South Africa at the end of 2020, so what used to be a cheque account is now simply a current account. The account itself did not disappear and neither did the number you call about it. Standard Bank does not run a separate cheque account desk; current account queries go to personal banking, and the specialist lines below deal with the parts that are not day-to-day banking.
Standard Bank current account numbers
- Personal banking, general enquiries: 0860 123 000
- Telephone banking: 0860 123 108
- Internet banking support: 0860 123 000, or +27 11 299 4701 from outside South Africa
- Cellphone and mobile banking: 0860 123 000
- Card enquiries: 0861 201 000, or +27 11 299 4520 from outside South Africa
- Business banking: 0860 109 075
Standard Bank mailboxes
- Personal banking: [email protected]
- Internet banking support: [email protected]
- Complaints: [email protected]
- Debt Care Centre, if you cannot meet repayments: [email protected]
Urgent lines, worth saving before you need them
- Lost or stolen cards: 0800 020 600, or 010 824 1514 from outside South Africa
- Fraud line: 0800 222 050, or 010 824 2090 from outside South Africa
- Lost or stolen UCount Rewards cards: 0860 826 868
Save the lost-card and fraud numbers on your phone now rather than searching for them at the moment you need them. Both are toll free from a South African line and both run outside office hours, which the general 0860 numbers do not.
What happened to cheques
South African banks stopped issuing and accepting cheques from 1 January 2021, following a Payments Association and Reserve Bank decision. If you are holding an uncashed cheque from before then it cannot be banked, and the money has to be recovered from whoever wrote it rather than from your bank. If you are looking for the account that replaced a cheque account, it is the current account under the same account number in most cases, and the switch did not require you to reopen anything.
Fee and statement queries
Have your account number and identity number ready, and ask specifically for the pricing guide applying to your account rather than the general one: Standard Bank prices several current account tiers differently and the fee you are querying may be correct for a different tier. Statements older than the period available in the app are requested through personal banking and may carry a retrieval fee.
If a complaint is not resolved
- Standard Bank complaints line: 0860 101 101, and always ask for a reference number
- If the bank does not resolve it, the National Financial Ombud Scheme South Africa handles banking complaints on 0860 800 900
- Take the complaint to the bank first; the ombud will normally not open a case until the bank has had its chance to respond
Related: Standard Bank Contact Details · Standard Bank Credit Card Contact Details · Standard Bank Deceased Estates Contact Details