Banking in Malaysia

I am aware of the CLOB incident where many fellow Sporeans lost their hard-earned monies. I don't believe for a moment that my monies will be safe in Malaysia, esp when I don't have a Msian citizen as a joint account holder (that option which was once open to me, no longer is).

However, after an evaluation of the pros and cons, as well as weighing the likelihood of losing everything, I decided to open a bank account with one of their most (if not, the most) established banks starting with the letter M. Actually, I was a bit more ambitious than that and decided to open an account with another of their banks starting with the letter R.

I checked the websites most carefully on the requirements before going down to the branch and prepared the necessary - passport, NRIC and even, my utilities bill. The lady at the counter that day told me I could not open a savings account but only a current account which had a charge of RM5 a month. Only after I'd asked if there were any other options which weren't quite so expensive did she offer the alternative of an account (current) with a charge of RM10 every 6 months. However, she required RM1000 for that account and thankfully I had that amount. However, my CEB had some doubts and the long-short was that we agreed to check out other options available such as R bank before commiting. We even went to another branch of M bank to ask about opening the account there but was told that "system is down - come back another day".

So last weekend, after a couple of emails from R bank informing me I could not open any account whatsoever with them, I went back to M bank and there was a different lady at the counter. She informed me that I was only eligible to open the account with a RM5 monthly charge. It was only when I firmly insisted that the lady the week before had processed the forms half way for me for the other account that she finally conceded that I could open this other type of account. BUT BUT, she wanted to make it tough - not only did she want my NRIC, Passport, copy of my utilities bill, the RM 1000 and also evidence of where I worked, something which wasn't required before. Anyway, to get the account open, rather than argue with her, I gave her my namecard which apparently was good enough.

She told me to wait for the girl at the next counter to process the forms and sat there we did. For a full one hour. Now, the girl was doing nothing, attending to no one else but her colleagues who came over to slouch in the chairs opposite and joke with her. At the end of one hour, when the other lady asked her if she was done, she just said "System problem". The other lady took over and immediately used the same computer which had a "system problem" to complete the processing in all of the next 15mins. When I groused about to my CEB, he said that if this country was as efficient as ours, we would be in serious trouble and therefore if I insisted on banking here in Msia, I would have to put up with stuff like this. Fine.

So, after the processing was completed, the lady gave my a Visa Debit card and a paper card which stated just my name and my account number. Except that it stated Savings Account instead of Current Account above my account number. When I questioned her, she said it didn't matter. And when I asked her for a copy of the forms which I'd signed on for the account opening, she said that these were not available to customers. I even asked her for a pamplet on this current account which states the rates/charges/interest and she told me the bank had none to give as all the information is on the website. Great. Just great.

And so to top it all off, when I "login-ed" to internet banking this morning, I found that RM8 had been deducted as bankard annual fees payment. I called the head office in KL to check and they told me it was because I'd applied for unlimited withdrawals. I told them I most definitely hadn't and they told me to call the JB branch. I asked if there was a possibility of reversal of the charge and she said I should just accept the fees paid for this one year. Fantastic Eh.

It gets even better - when I asked her if payment of petrol using the visa debit cards = withdrawals, she said no. She asked if anyone told me that there would be a deduction of RM 200 each time I used the card for petrol withdrawal which would subsequently be credited back to the account after 5 days and the correct amount charged then. I said no. Well, apparently it is something that wasn't mentioned to me despite me telling the lady at the branch my primary purpose of opening the freaking account.

Msia banking boleh indeed.