Letter to the Straits Times Forum:
I WANTED to work at a McDonald’s restaurant and was told to open an account at POSB. So I went to a branch at Textile Centre and got a shock when I was told that I needed at least $500 to open an account.
When I went to a Maybank branch nearby to ask how much I would need to deposit in order to open an account, I was told the sum was only $10.
I always thought POSB was the people’s bank.
I may still open a POSB account for job reasons. In the meantime, I have opened a Maybank account as it allows a blue-collar worker with not enough savings to open an account with only $10.
Azmanshah Zailamshah
POSBank is part of DBS.
DBS is a GLC.
GLC collects taxes on behalf of the govt.
That’s how the IRAS manages to lower tax rates while keeping government expenditure high.
IRAS has other agents to collect tax for them. Namely the GLCs.
Ever wonder why the lending rates of Govt banks are higher than the foreign banks?
Foreign banks target higher income earners and can entice them with these lower rates.
If you cannot get a low rate from HDB, and you cannot get the foreign bank loans, then you die die got to pay for the higher rates of the Govt linked banks.
It is another way to collect taxes to fund an ever expanding govt.
Azmanshah,
Since DBS took over POSB, there is no such thing as People’s bank in Singapore anymore. Banks only know how to cheat your money. Remember all the unethical money-sucking Relationship Managers from the Lehman Brothers fiasco? Always be careful and be cynical with handling your bank. Never trust their investment advice if the advisor’s commission is tied to the success of the transaction.
Not only this, even Housing Loan interestrate also higher than Maybank interest rate.
Let’s all put our money in Maybank!!..that way, lesser money to govt so we won’t get screwed so much..
I agree that Maybank is a good bank. I have accounts in there; the service is excellent. Something i would like to add, in general, they approach everything cautiously. By the way, I am a singaporean working in Malaysia; i left my job because the company is only interested in hiring non-locals.
Don’t forget that two dollars will be deducted if the amount goes below $500.
Some time back I found out my account was sub 500 for many years.
I realised that i was charged or penalised for many many of these months
and i could not find out since when that happened as I had not updated that account passbook for a long time. I checked with the counter people and they said need to pay something like , i forgot, tens of dollars for a month of past records or something like that. I forgot the fee chargeable. anyways I din wanna pay and pay for this kind of thing and so could not know exactly how many months I was ‘penalised’ whereby the charge was something like $5 per month sub 500.
Guys an gals better go and check all you old accounts that you may have not checked for a long time!!!
What I felt sad about was, when I am not having enough money, I was being ‘penalised’ for not having enough money.
Anyways, to free myself from constantly having to topup this account, to avoid being ‘penalised’, I decided to close this account soon. that means not just sub 500 but zero, only zero dollars will be left. oh, it should be not even a zero.
6) Singaporespirit on April 2nd, 2009 3.23 pm
Don’t forget that two dollars will be deducted if the amount goes below $500.
]]]
oh i missed your post. Maybe you are right, it should be $2. Anyways, I forgot what is the amount deductable. Ah yes, that is the right word to use ‘deductable’.
1) cat on April 2nd, 2009 12.41 pm
sounds like you know quite a bit. Is the Pools a GLC?
i wonder if its our lazy HR departments who insist on POSB/DBS… cuz whenever I see the queues at the ATMs during paydays…. and seeing OCBC/UOB and others with shorter queues, I think its absurb….. (putting more $$ to get more queues…)
currently I have not closed my posb due to a month giro .
When I get time, I intend to switch the giro to deduct from Maybank since it does not deduct when I have no more than 500 left. I heard their FD is high also. And its true FD rates are all very neglible nowadays. very low. But theirs is high comparatively.
I do not see the reason to keep an account where I constantly need to monitor the min sum. THANKS!! for this article!
To very rich people, 500 is peanuts. To me, a lot of money. I am a poor man.
why deduct me further when i have not enough for other luxuries already?
10) Larry on April 2nd, 2009 4.09 pm
I wonder is it true that most PRs or FTs open DBS or posb?
I frequently see many FT people queuing up at posb or dbs atms.
To: Larry
Haha, you are damn right. Why put $ to get longer queue?
i agree..ever since they’ve merged, POSB is no longer a people’s bank…that went away a long time ago. and they merged only because they wanted to compete better with the foreign banks…who are simply BETTER. at. everything. they. do.
who gets screwed? the locals. Isnt this a story told too often recently? As usual, like all govt bodies who have PAP-linked people running at the top, they all take Singaporeans for granted.
DBS started this admin fee thingy, (when all it is are I’s and O’s stored in some database, which THEY HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR in their operating IT budgets) and also penalise people who dont have enough money in their bank.
You know why? coz retail banking is “annoying” to them. You keep $500 -3000 with them. they cant make much money from your money..yet must give savings book, print statements, run brick and mortar counters, ATMs etc etc. A lot of cost to maintain small money.
so they annoy you, charge admin fee, small savings rate. etc etc.
The only attractive thing in consumer/retail banking is when you BORROW from them. otherwise, they cant give a rat’s ass about maintaining savings accounts for you.
i’m only keepin my money in there because of reservist, CPF and other admin stuff. Otherwise, i would have pulled out of DBS a long time ago, and put into a foreign bank, who are more wise in competing for consumers’ dollars.
There is no logic in deducting $2 if your acc falls below $500. Any reason they give, anyone knows? Pls tell me. This DBS is too much, POSB is a long time people’s bank, why want to merge ? Something wrong
Not surprised.
DBS has ambitions to be major East Asia regional player; hence all those structured products to show it smart boy. Can mix around with the likes of Lehman, and Merrill Lynch
But turned out to be big ass, making poor its “treasured customers”.
Now if it had poor customers to begin with, it got nothing to sell to them to make them poor.
MayBank is content to be a big player in M’sia and S’pore. Sometimes it pays to seat in shade of mangosteen tree, and eat the fruits after they ripen.
MayBank is from Malaysia, they are more friendly, pro-people. But why children can open a/c in POSB with less than $500 ??
so which scholar idea is this now?
get send into cold palace liao this time round?
or is actually there is no such thing as a people bank?
a business is a business.
they want to do what they just do loh.
singapore is a free market.
if not happy just don’t deal with them that all loh.
17) Ah Choi on April 2nd, 2009 5.45 pm
MayBank is from Malaysia, they are more friendly
- Children can because when they reach adulthood, then get the same deal lor … S$2 if minimum not reached…..
One more thing, try depositing coins…. got charge oso leh ……….
Next time, maybe they charge us for postage too….
I wonder if anybody noticed… during last National Day, DBS Building in pitch darkness…. Very malu…. Maybank…. they bother to dress up their building to celebrate Singapore’s National Day…..
With all the S$2′s collected, surely they can afford a little extra of utilities for the National Day night mah …
i have a posb a/c for debit purposes, but the bulk of my savings are in a foreign bank actually.
i supposed posb contribute money to some social causes, and i reckon it should be a relatively huge contribution. i wonder how much of this contribution is a result of charging the poor the monthly fee (or penalty). can the scholastic management of posb (DBS) not think that the poors are the ultimate losers? poor really gets poorer by these scholars locking the minimum balance at $500.
it is understandable if other bigger commercial banks (foreign or domestic) charge a fee to maintain a minimum balance. it used to be a people’s bank, for the people. remove the imposed fee and treat it as part of the contribution for the social causes. the contributions are meant to help the poor, removing the penalty DIRECTLY helps the poor. it really makes no sense to lock $500 of the poor, no sense. the rich do not face this problem. to the highly paid policy makers of dbs/posb, please do not add another problem to the struggling poor, our pockets are not deep….. at least remove this penalty for the savings account, current accounts can remain status quo.
sighs…sg is too much like a business outfit for a long time…. literally everything is business, humanity is super rare.
What do you mean an ‘ever expanding’ governemnt???
More accurately, it should be an ‘increasingly expensive’ government.
Jackson #21
Great idea. You get even higher interest for your current accounts at HSBC.
Isn’t Singapore supposed to be a free market?
Why is the government protecting domestic banks?
#19
Thanks for sharing the observation.
I understand that CEO of MayBank S’pore is S’porean.
Since when has CEO of DBS has been S’porean? Not since the late 1990s.
And I doubt if MayBank S’pore has that many FTs compared to DBS.
DBS is local only because Temasek the controlling shareholder. And we know how pro “anyone but S’porean” is Temasek’s shareholder.
Will be migrating.
in other words, they rob you of two dollars. whatever heck reasons they have is never justified. imagine a few thousand having less than 500 dollars in their account? This is THEFT and ROBBERY!!!!!!
It is not just Maybank is friendlier. Banks in Malaysia offer much better deposit rates. For FD’s you can easily get more than 4%. Even with the recession, most offer higher than 3%.
Banks here do not reduce home loan rates ( even increasing them ) yet offer below 1% for FD!
With a favourable exchange rate, ever considering keeping your money in JB?
Someone complained on air at 958 this morning:
She wants to open joint account with her mentally retarded child. The bank asked for doctor letter. (The doctor was puzzled.) When she presented the doctor to the bank, the bank officer inform her that permit from court is requird for mentally retarded people to open bank account.
This reminds me of the law case where old lady sued OCBC because the bank refused to let her withdraw her money as the bank thought she was not mentally sound. The case is still pending.
Ang Kong Kia #28
It is not because the bank thought the old lady was unsound, but because the old lady was about to withdraw about S$8M from OCBC. How can OCBC allow such a hefty withdrawal under such tight credit condition?
While I can understand the feelings of the aggrieved one, but I am perturbed as to the saying ‘POSB is the people’s bank.
Since when POSB is the people’s bank. Who said that POSB is the people’s bank.
Broader question, who tell you that Singapore belongs to the people? SInce when one can see ‘Singapore belongs to the people’ in action ? By doing NS?
Who is the one who says that Singapore belongs to the people?
I still remember when my class teacher spoke to us about saving our pocket money.
She showed us how we can save 5 cents or 10 cents a day, buy stamps equal to that value, then paste those stamps on a card.
You do need a piggy bank as you would be tempted to empty it easily.
It was quite exciting so many of us got into the habit.
We will wait for the day when the clerks of the Post Office Savings Bank will come to our school, take the completed card, then credit our saving books with the amount we saved..
It became so popular that some scholar suggessted that the Ministry of Finance take it over from the Ministry of Communications ( Post Office)
They changed the name to POSB and made it a Stat Board and finally it became a private entity.
Out of nowhere, DBS comes along a buys it.
DBS runs it like any other private entity.
Nobody is going to ask or show their displeasure by gettiing their money out immediately
A few remarks on some of the comments made above
a) HR dept insist on POSB acct to deposit pay.
I cant understand why HR depts would still insist on this, there is no benefit/penalty for depositing into the accounts of any QFB (qualifying full banks) in S’pore (this includes the local 3 and the foreign ones like Maybank, StanChart, Citi, ABN (RBS), HSBC)
b) POSB/DBS not interested in savings deposits
When POSB was “up for sale”, all the 3 local banks pitched hard. POSB has a huge, stable deposit base of clients built up over the years who for reasons of convenience or plain lethargy, are willing to accept an abysmally low return on their savings. This creates a HUGE pool of very cheap funds for the acquiring bank to make massive returns on through lending/investing.
The only thing that peeves DBS is having to put up with the cost of counter services to deal with all the aunties and uncles who cannot use ATMs.
So DBS impose the $500 minimum to make sure its worth their while to service them.
c) Maybank S’pore is willing to attract more SGD deposits as I believe it can make use of MAS USD swap arrangement with the US to gain access to USD funds. The Malaysian banks in general are finding it very hard/expensive to get their hands on USD. Banking with Maybank S’pore should be safe as your deposits are g’teed by S’pore govt.
#32) hasta la vista
Don’t quite agree with your pt (b).
I think the customer pool may be large but not necessarily the total pool of funds. This is bcos due to the very low interest, many use DBS/POSB only for ATM purposes for daily needs and also salary credit. Hence they may not maintain much, maybe just sufficient for monthly expenses until next pay day. If they have money, the bulk of it will be in other banks in FD for higher interest rate.
So that’s why POSB insist on the min $500 to correct this issue.
I went to the bank a while back asking for help to allow me to change the atm card pin as I have forgotten after a very long time of inactivity.
The teller told me, i have to get a new card for $5.
I was shocked. I asked, now that i am here with my atm card, my nric and myself present, is it not sufficient authentication that i am the holder of the atm card ? If so, why can I not change my pin over the counter? Afterall, I can withdraw or deposit money even without a passbook or cannot remember the pin .
I could not understand why such a bank that we grew up with is having such a policy. In other bank , i may be wrong, but i think changing of atm card pin number does not require cutting up my existing card and replacing it with a new one.
I asked the teller again in a very clear way , just to be sure, and indeed, i have get confirmation that my understanding was correct. I said that its not acceptable to me. So, he waived the $5 and immediately, I got a new card and new pin.
The issues here are:
1. why is $5 chargeable for a common human error or problem of bad memory?
2. The 2nd issue here is why must a NEW card be the only solution to a common problem of forgetting the pin? why so rigid? Don’t forget, to do all these, customers usually would have to queue up and i am sure no one likes to spend their time queuing.
This is what I get from the teller. Feel free to correct me if this understanding is not correct. I am sure many are their customers.
25) A Tan on April 3rd, 2009 7.32 am
either that or you can wait for a while more.
;)
Have DBS Current Account since 1970. My monthly salary was banked in to this account. I also have 3 POSB Joint Accounts with my wife and childre. Most of the time, my balance iwith DBS s always over $20,000. Once in a while, I even had as much as over $100,000 but always took out big sums to place into fixed deposit accounts with May Bank or other banks when they offer better Savings Rates.But when applying for a Every Day POSB Credit Card and as a non-salary retiree, I need to open a DBS Fixed Deposit with minimum of $10,000t o get it even though I have ample existing combined funds in DBS and POSB in both banks. The banking system with DBS shows that it is a money-faced bank with no consideration for customers, DBS is so calculative and yet it has to retrench more staff than the other banks. Something wrong…somewhere….with its banking system ?
Obamaosama Boleh Gilah !
Do note that Maybank also charge a min balance fee of $2 if you did not maintain $200 in your saving account monthly.
DBS bought POSB in 1997-8, when POSB had so much more asset than DBS, which was in deep trouble during that time.
It was an open-eyed bailout of DBS, but it was denied again and again. Soon everybody forgot.
In fact, it was a similar scenario to what’s happening in the US / UK now, where the taxpayor monies are used to bail out the failures of the bankers and the elites.
10 years later in2007, DBS ex-CEO Jackson Tai abruptly resigned days before the news of financial crisis blew up throughout the world. What a foreign talent he was!
There are so many other banks other than POSB/DBS.
When one chooses the Latter and not other banks and complains about its’ services, imho, it is not justifiable. YOU HAVE THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE and You are not forced to use only POSB/DBS.
Similarly, those who feel the Straits Times are spouting and sprouting Government(PAP) Propaganda are also free not to buy/read it. BUT, here i feel it is justifiable to complain that it(ST) carries biased/prejudicial reportings, even if one is not a buyer of the Newspaper.
OCBC Easisave is worst than DBS/POSB. They have a minimum monthly charge of $2 per month. If your account has less than $1000.00, they will deduct a further $10.00 admin charge for a total of $12.00 per month.
If you feel so unhappy with DBS/POSB, you will be worst off with OCBC.
OCBC is a fair weather friend. As soon as they are aware that your financial is not stable even though you do not owe them any money. They will unilaterally terminate credit with you. (ie Easicredit and your credit cards). When they terminate your credit card, they will also forfeit all your Credit Card points that you have accumulated. These Credit card points could be worth hundred of $ if you are using their cards. When you called them to claim for your Credit card point to redeem, they just tell you it had been forfieted. Not a word of sorry. For this reason, I called OCBC unprofessional and a Cheat
My salary is very low when I worked in my previous company.Then I begin to realise that Maybank only need u to maintain 200 in ur account balance.And its affordable for lower income people.Even now,I had better pay which is twice my last salary I can still maintain this account because its convenient to use when I’m travelling to Malaysia.
#!@#@$%^## Banks can change their terms and conditions ANYTIME without notice!! lol The $2 service charge for those with less than $500 is NOT a service, but is a DISSERVICE!
I/m a malaysian working in SG. I went to POSB today to open an account for my salary transaction & guest what that they officer’s told me. For foreign workers,We can only apply at chinatown & i can only come & collect back the ATM card after 10 working days… In malaysia, it would only take few hours for a foreigner to apply for an ATM card…. what a stupid rules