It's really frustrating being a bank customer in Malaysia.
In the past couple of months, too many of us, including those who have the privilege and responsibility of being on the BoD of some international banks have had to bear the brunt of 'added security measures'. As Malaysia apparently high-risk in terms of credit card frauds, the banks have taken the initiative to reduce their risk by pre-emptively blocking cards that are suspected to have been cloned. As a customer, I'm happy with this - but please, tell us first or immediately after you decide to block the card?
I know of one AMEX customer who had to bear the embarrassment of having his card declined at Dunhill, KLCC. He was a foreigner, and because the charges were made in Malaysia, it was picked up as an anomaly. I know of a Malaysian who had to bear the extra cost of paying for a 2nd driver charge in the UK because his own card was rejected. I myself had my card blocked as I arrived in Australia - a major problem when it comes to large payments like accommodation and transportation.
But I realised today that it's just as frustrating being an online bank customer in Malaysia.
Firstly, website access in Malaysia are generally slow. This is a given. Hence, a lot of effort has gone into customising things to suit the shoddy Malaysian internet infrastructure. But with all the resources available to the banks, why is it that they can't optimise their sites to suit us poor internet users?
Secondly, I have too many passwords as it is. My company uses a single sign-on application which, while useful, is to me quite pointless because it signs on to applications that I use every day. If you use the password and ID every day, one would assume that it would be difficult to forget.
So I have a long list inside my head. No, I don't write my passwords down - it defeats the purpose of having a password. I used to keep it in a secured file in my PDA - but 1) I no longer have the PDA and 2) I once had it wiped out by accident. Yes, there is backup. But nothing beats a brain.
On top of all that, I have a Maybank2u password, a Citibank password, pin numbers for these accounts, numerous passwords to webmail services, industry magazines etc etc etc.
I had mistakenly deposited a post-dated cheque recently, which should not be honoured (as I was penalised RM10 for it), but was honoured anyway. Hence, my friend ended up paying twice for money she owed me. I tried to log in to Maybank2u, keyed in my password wrongly 3 times and got myself locked out. To unlock the account, I have to call a number. The number has been engaged all morning.
How much does it cost to have a decent call centre nowadays? Whatever the figure is, it should be peanuts for these banks, especially a bank like Maybank.
My plea to the local banks or anyone who has a new great idea:
1. Make sure you have adequate support for idiot users like me. Have lots of agents and available incoming lines or if you can't afford it, have an automatic reset password function.
2. If you don't want people to forget their passwords, make sure you work on a common identity structure with someone else. Don't bloody reinvent the wheel! MSN had a great idea - single ID to all its services. Now they, and many many others, have jumped on the Liberty Alliance bandwagon.
In the meanwhile - back to queuing... :(
What a coincidence, yesterday I had my Visa card blocked. But the bank was kinder this time and phone immediately that their fraud unit suspects my card had been cloned and so their blocking action. The praises ends there.
Because now I have to wait for 4 working days before they can provide me with a replacement card. Considering that Deepavali and the long weekend holidays come one after the other, I guess the 4 days cannot be met.
And there's another problem. I pay my astro subcription using this card under standing instructions. Now the bank tells me when I have got my replacement card to phone their customer service to advise the change of card no. Why can't they automate this when issuing the new card. And how I hate to hear the all too familar "...All our lines are busy, blah blah.."
Talking of passwords, for one who is the twilight of his life, you can just imagine the difficulty of remembering multiple passwords and pin numbers.
The irony of it is that the banks advise and encourage one to change pin numbers, etc frequently.
My dear, I am sorry that your experience with the banks have been somewhat unpleasant. It is a combination of issues that lead to these. It is not uncommon for the banks to attempt to be at the leading edge, way to ahead of their time. This happened with the implementation of online payments a few years ago.
Like most big corporations, strategies and new business opportunities are not thought of by the techies, even if they are, only a small part of it. They end up going with the flow (just like the US or Europe) with little consideration to the underlying infrastructure.
Some even go as far as saying that since it is a common infrastructure then all will be the same ... it's the "same-same but different" attitude. They concentrate on branding to be different then decide to be the "same" like the others (i.e. one has online banking all must have online banking)
They forget, failures like this impact branding.
Posted by: TiFische at 2003年10月22日 14:24Oh yes ... maybe you need a personal private banker? To handle all this for you.
Posted by: TiFische at 2003年10月22日 14:25oiiii wait la for the newer ver of SSO hehheheheh it shud solve all ur headaches..err when..nantilaaa..wait aaa :D
Posted by: antusemut at 2003年10月22日 17:03I do online banking from here to pay my car installments via Maybank2u. For a good year, I've done it with no problems. Then come September, I try to make a payment and and it said my car hire purchase account was unauthorised.
Lots of phone calls and waiting (and not to mention, bills!) later, I decided to make my sister queue up and pay for it instead.
Posted by: Idlan at 2003年10月22日 19:19From my own experience, Malaysian banks's services are 23 years behind banks in foreign lands.
Posted by: bill at 2003年10月22日 19:55(not targeting you)
suspected root cause : malaysian mentality
preventive actions : requires a change.
1)be more customer oriented. serve the customer. major problem in all service industries in malaysia.
2)customer should complain to relevant parties. bank negara?
3)why doesn't bank negara do something? grrr...
4)more stringent monitoring by banks. wonder how much money is siphoned off from the inside and kept quiet.
Posted by: Wena at 2003年10月22日 22:22Just out of curiousity, does Maybank charge monthly service fees to its customers? What about the concept of competition? Aren't they concerned about their customers switching to a different bank?
Posted by: magixcarpet at 2003年10月22日 23:32i do online banking with public bank and i must say it is quite good. no problem, no trouble, no inconvenience. and site is not too slow too.
but the best thing with public bank e-banking is one of the e-banking staff known as mr 'yong wah' (not sure the spelling)who is one of the most helpful, friendly banking staff i ever come across. (spoke to him on phone only. he's in kl while i in penang)
Posted by: lucia at 2003年10月23日 01:22I've actually switched banks from BCB to RHB. Can't say much about BCB, less they sue me for defamation or something, but I can commend the service I get from RHB. The online banking is so far without problems and their staff are friendly. No more queuing at the post office to pay bills.
Just in case any one's wondering, I do not work for or in any way affiliated to RHB (other than having an account with them).
Cheers
Posted by: namiaf at 2003年10月23日 15:52There is a reason for e-banking not using a single password sign in system beacause it is security related. The purposely set the cookie to expire in a certain time so that your account will be protected.
It also work as a confirmation. For example, u are in a middle of transaction then the telephone rang. You went somewhere else to answer the phone and forgotting to lock up your pc. (Win+L) Your friend might be helpful to transfer RMXXXXX to his account. :D
Posted by: Akmal at 2003年11月09日 06:49Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.