Of Banks Again

Let me make myself clear, I am not against banks. In fact after ranting in my previous post, I thought of tutup buku (closing the case) against banks. Afterall, the matter has been resolved without me having to go to the branch or write to the bank.

But today I want to write about my DH's experience with another bank. Let's call it AXXXX Bank. It's not as annoying as CXXX Bank, but still...

Recently my DH obtained a HP financing from AXXXX Bank for the purchase of a new car. The car dealer made all the necessary arrangements for the financing. We collected the new car on Tuesday last week. The dealer told us that we would receive the HP documents in 2 weeks time and that the first monthly installment would be due around the 20th of August.

A couple of days later, my DH received a text message from AXXXX Bank, informing him that payment is overdue. He was like, what the ???? is going on? How can a payment be overdue? What payment?

Then he made a call to the bank. Oh yes, in this day and age, the only way to get in touch with a bank is through its hotline or customer care or some other similar sounding department. The hotline staff informed him that the overdue payment is for financing processing fee of RM30. Hmm, no one mentioned before that we would have to pay the processing fee. It's certainly not a nice feeling to be told that a payment is overdue when you're not even aware that you're supposed to pay it in the first place. But we thought, "fine, what is due is due, so we'll pay".

Before deciding to accept this bank's HP financing, DH hed already checked and confirmed that the monthly installment could be settled online.So DH intented to settle the RM30 processing fee online as well. Now, this is the good part. The hotline staff said that it cannot be paid online. DH must visit the branch to settle the payment.

DH was adamant that he wanted to settle the amount online. In the end, the hotline staff gave in. DH can settle online, but wait... this is the best part.. he would have to write a letter to the bank!

I felt sorry for my DH for having to go through the inconvenience, but at the same time I wanted to laugh because his story with AXXXX Bank is similar to my story with CXXX Bank. I mean, what is it about Malaysian banks and their tendency to tell customers to "visit the branch" and "write a letter to the bank"?

I feel like our banks are almost 20 years behind when compared to the banks in developed countries. When I was a student in the UK in the early 90s, banking was so convenient. I never had to visit my branch for anything. Even when requesting for cheque books (even as an 18 year old with very little money, I was entitled to cheque books), I could request that the cheque books be mailed to my house at no extra charge. Or I could simply request to collect the cheque book from a branch nearest to my house, again at no extra charge. And there were branches all over, I could just walk from my house to the nearest branch.

Try doing that here, and there'll be extra charges imposed. Recently I made full settlement of my car financing at a branch of AX Bank in Damansara. I requested to collect the car registration card at the same branch instead of at the branch where the financing was approved (in KL). My request was granted, but I had to pay courier charges of RM30. And I was told that it would take longer, about 2 weeks, instead of the usual 3 days.

In the end, it took more than 1 month to get the registration card. And that was after I made repeated phone calls to the bank's customer service and in the end 'threatened' them with "I'll write to the newspapers". Even then, they tried to place the blame on me, asking whether I'd paid the courier charges, which I had done so on the same day that I made the full settlement of the financing. They would know this if they cared to check their records.

Okay enough rants about banks. I guess I could go on and on about the state of customer service, not just within the banking industry, but in Malaysia overall, and the story will never end.

For my next post, I'm trying to find a nice story for a change.