Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Act with honor and integrity

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Act with honor and integrity

I find it despicable for a corporation to impose a charge on an unsuspecting consumer and to waive the charge when the consumer finds out and make a protest. The corporation is behaving like a crook, without honor and integrity.

I was in Suntec Mall. A young man approached me to get me to subscribe for a credit card. He showed me a free gift. The annual fee is waived for the first year.

I asked, "What is the annual fee after the first year? ". He replied "aah, uuh, aah ...... $190". I walked away. He said "nobody pays the renewal fee. If you call the bank, they will waive it". I know that the bank will waive the annual fee for consumers who knows about it and who have the clout. They hope to make the fee on the unsuspecting consumers who did not notice the charge or do not have the clout. I find this practice to be despicable, just like stealing. I refused to take the credit card.

I am writing with this strong language, knowing that some of my blog visitors are from the banks and are involved in this despicable practice. I hope that they agree with me, and will pass this message to their management. I also know that people from MAS read my blog. I hope that they will pass the message to their management also, so that they can take steps to get our banks and corporations to be more honorable in their dealings - and stop behaving like crooks.

Tan Kin Lian

11 comments:

zhummmeng said...: Don't trust the banks..They set traps.They are all fair weather friends. They will take away the umbrella when you need it most during the rainy days.
The minibond saga is another proof of their lack of conscience.They have robbed many men in the street of their hard earned money.They are blood suckers.; January 26, 2011 11:37 PM
yujuan said...: I have been paying the annual fee for my card for decades, without realising it. I only found out my foolishness, and wrote to DBS for an explanation why this Bank still deduct it from my bank account every year.; January 27, 2011 12:04 AM
hanglian said...: I was quite puzzled about this credit card annual fees phenomena, they never fail to waive the annual fee if one just call to ask for a waiver (usually no question asked, like they are expecting this)... or one threatens to cancel the card.

Now I think I understand why, there are indeed people who either don't know they can get a waiver or totally forget about it.

The telcos used to offer free value added services for the first few months, and if you forget to unsubscribe, they will start charging after the free period...not sure if it's still being practiced now. Similar concept?; January 27, 2011 3:26 AM
Unknown said...: Two years Singtel gave me free news alert. I thought it was nice of them till one fine day I realised that only first month was free and the subsequent months, i need to pay them. As I was paying GIRO for my Singtel phone bill.I was caught surprise and cancelled it immediately. From now onwards, I make it a point to read thru all my bills.; January 27, 2011 8:20 AM
zhummmeng said...: In insurance line the agents learn that if the customers don't ask don't tell . Try to avoid.If they ask try to taichi.
This is the kind of non-disclosure. This is sales strategy.; January 27, 2011 9:30 AM
COMMON CENTS said...: I never used giro to pay for credit card bills, knowing very well these banks would simply deduct annual fees, any fraudulent charges from my account. I prefer the old way (some may say it's inefficient way) using cheques to pay my credit card bills. In fact nowadays with AXS and SAM machines, plus Internet banking, it is very convenient to pay bills without using giro. At least, I know my money is safe-guarded against auto deduction that is unfair or I am not agreeing. Think of it, once the bank takes your money through giro (for annual fee for example) do you think it is more hassle for you to "request" them or maybe impossible to get it back? With many credit cards, it is quite a challenge to keep track of when the annual fee is due after the initial annual fee waiver period.; January 27, 2011 11:22 AM
StocksKeeper said...: yes, Dennis is right on the GIRO thing. Never pay credit card bill via GIRO. it makes waiver of fee more troublesome.

however i did encountered once when my request for waiver was rejected and i just requested to cancel it which they did. that was with UOB and it may be due to very low usage of the card although i don't face such issue anymore even for my other cards that i don't use at all.

maybe they just like to make customers give them a call and use the opportunity to sell more products? haha... who knows.; January 27, 2011 3:52 PM
Solomon said...: The best MAS could do is black list the company in question and the customer has to fight the company in court to get back their money.

I know of one asset management company which MAS black list. I was caught by surprise when I checked MAS's website, this company has been operating in Singapore for some years with MAS's approval. I immediately terminate my investment with this company. I believe this company is still operating in Singapore.

My rule of thumb now is never deal with any asset management company (even with MAS's approval)besides banks. Only buy simple products from banks, anything more complicated than 1+1=2 is considered high risk.; January 27, 2011 3:59 PM
hanglian said...: Just beware there're other traps for people who don't use giro, things like late payment fees, interest, etc. Just have to forget paying the bill once and you'll be charged those fees. Then of course, if you call the customer service and cook up a nice story, you'll get a waiver for that too. I have tried that before and it works.; January 27, 2011 4:50 PM
Vincent Sear said...: I find using GIRO to pay credit card bills is alright, since it reduces the risks of oversight late payments and incur penalties that are harder to appeal against.

For more than ten years with a StanChart credit card, every anniversary I have to keep track whether the points were enough to auto-waive membership fee. If not I had to call to get it waived.

I found this very bothersome. I agree with TKL that there's actual no need for membership fee for them to be profitable. Any junior executive can be authorised to waive it anytime. They just take it as extra profit when cardmembers forgot to call, who can be many making it lucrative.

A few years ago, I found a totally free card with FairPricePlus Visa issued by OCBC. You can get the brochure at any FairPrice supermarket. There's no annual fee whatsoever. The expense points scored are LinkPoints. You don't even have to be an union member.

If you're an union member, go for the members-only NTUCPlus card which comes with more benefits and enhanced LinkPoints scoring.

Another good one is POSB MasterCard. Free for first three years and for subsequent years, annual fee is charged at S$18, auto-waived if there're six transactions per year, regardless of expense amounts. I think this criteria is easy to hit for anyone. Though this a completely no frills, i.e. no usage award programme, no points to be scored.

Both the FairPricePlus and POSB cards are available in debit card versions too, which works the same way as credit cards except no creditline is extended, all purchases are charged to the linked bank accounts respectively.; January 27, 2011 5:08 PM
Unknown said...: this is similar to the practice of consumer having to pay in full for good and services (petrol, food etc) unless one has certain credit cards that entitled the person for certain "discount"; January 28, 2011 7:04 AM