Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Fee for a mistake in the cheque

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Fee for a mistake in the cheque

Dear Mr. Tan
I agree with your views about the outdated manner of writing cheques. I made a small correction to the amount in figures on my cheque but forget to initial the correction. The bank returned the cheque to me and charge a fee of $25. I called the bank and made a complaint. They finally agreed to waive this fee. Why should the fee be so high, just to return the cheque?

REPLY
The bank imposed a high fee for many types of small mistakes. This helps them to make billion of dollars of profit. It is outrageous for the fee to be so high. MAS should step in and put a stop to these excessive overcharging.

Some time ago, my bank sent me a letter that the fee for a late payment of a credit card is $50. I cancelled the card immediately. Consumers should not accept this type of unconscionable charges.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...: Hi Mr Tan,
ANZ from nowhere sent me a moneyline cheque book. I left it alone as I did not have any a/c with this bank. A couple of days ago, I was billed by ANZ for holding this moneyline a/c. Immediately I called its hotline to cancel. I was told to write in to cancel it officially which I have done promptly.
Why banks are giving me this sort of hassles?; July 13, 2010 9:13 PM
Anonymous said...: I went to OCBC bank to close an account, asking the balance money to be a cheque, and was surprised to have to pay $5 for a cashier's cheque in my own name, with the balance a seven figure sum.
Even $5 dollars this bank wants to make, and i still have another bank account and a Corporate account in operation at this bank.
By the way, another local Bank, DBS Bank, even if you want to deposit a $10m cheque into your Bank Account, you still have to deposit it into the deposit box, you can't do it at the counter, and they call it special service for Treasures clients. My relationship manager has changed again for the umpteen time, i dread to receive a personal call from this new manager, who has my details at her fingertips, and all I want is to be able to deposit cheques at the counter, not for a limousine to send me to the airport whenever i want to leave for another country, For this my children want to send me off, not the bank limousine.; July 13, 2010 9:28 PM
Anonymous said...: MAS has no time to deal with such 'complicated' task but quick to point finger to DBS recent saga. Has it effectively played a role as MAS? I don't know.

Loh; July 13, 2010 10:14 PM
Anonymous said...: No need to cancel card just because they charge you late payment fee.

These days, late payment fee waiver is easily granted with just a phone call to the customer hotline. Some credit cards even have an option on their phone menu selection to request for waiver, which in most instances are usually granted.

The same applies for annual membership renewal.

However, if you dont make that call, they will keep quiet and proceed to bill you for late payment or renewal fee.

Also, many credit card companies are giving freebies like $50-$100 credits/vouchers to entice you to sign up. Do take advantage of such promotion and just cancel the card after you utilise the rewards. I have several free meals and nice hefty shopping discount courtesy of some of these credit card companies :)

Even the saleperson promoting the card advise me to exploit the perks they offer! He claimed that he get paid $5 for every new card sign up and even if I cancel it subsequently, it doesn't bother him because he already collected his commission.

So win-win for all, except for the card company, hehe.; July 13, 2010 10:20 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Reply to 10:20 pm
I know that the bank will waive the charge if the customer complain.

But they want to catch the unsuspecting customer who did not complain.

This is just like stealing. If they are caught, they return the stolen goods. Otherwise, they keep the stolen goods.

Why do honorable banks have to resort to this way of making money? Greed without honor.; July 13, 2010 10:51 PM
Anonymous said...: This practice is also common in the US where banks are known to "nickel and dime" customers.

Charging customers exorbitant late fees, fees for cheques, inequitable T&Cs, etc.

All in the name of profits. There is not much choice here as just about all banks have adopted this practice to earn additional income.

There also appears to be a lack of regulation of financial institutions for the public interest.

Perhaps financial cooperatives such as building societies would be useful as an alternative.; July 13, 2010 11:37 PM
Anonymous said...: I have only 2 or 3 credit cards which I can keep a close track. I know some banks are offering free credit cards etc but I think is pointless to take up such freebies even if they come with free vouchers etc. Remember, the wool comes from the sheep. Somebody out there is "sacrificing" to let others benefit. Why do we want to support such actions?; July 14, 2010 7:09 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: I hope that MAS and the banks realise that $25 is half a day's of wage for many people in Singapore. It is easy to impose hefty charges, but they can cause suffering to people who are struggling to make ends meet.; July 14, 2010 7:41 AM
Anonymous said...: also remember to read the fine print. for an example OCBC, due date is today 14th July but if you are paying via AXS or cash deposit thru their machine, you must do it by 5pm or 9pm (if i remember it correctly) respectively, after these timing, the payment will be considered paid in the next working day which will incur late payment fee. so if you miss the timing, even paying it before 2359hrs also considered late.; July 14, 2010 8:33 AM
Anonymous said...: I think its perfectly fine to impose late payment fees to enforce timely payment of bills otherwise it will be open to abuse. Of coursse in genuine cases where the card owner overlooks the due date, the bank will waive the late payment fee.

What they can do to improve the system and at the same time not subject to abuse, is to send a notice/reminder via SMS if the account is overdue for say 3 days. This can be followed by another notification on say the 10th day of overdue and afterwhich they proceed to impose a late payment fee.

With the advancement of technology, getting this system in place should'nt be too difficult. I get reminders from HDB to renew my season parking every month. Singtel and M1 send me 2 reminders for overdue payment before they proceed to penalise me. I am sure the banks can do the same.

With this in place, there is no reason to complain about the late payment fee.

As for the freebies, the banks are raking in huge profits every year from you. Its just taking back what you have paid them in the form of interest on loans, service charge, whatever fees, etc.

You dont take, somebody else will take. It's your loss, not the banks or anyone else that "sacrificed" something for your benefit.; July 14, 2010 9:09 AM