Friday, February 04, 2011

Behavior like a thief [2]

I wish to share this personal experience. I was given an infinite credit card as a special privilege with fee waived for 5 years. I was not told about the annual fee and I did not keep track of the expiry of this waiver period. I authorized the amount due to be deducted from my bank account by GIRO (as I wish to avoid the exorbitant late payment charge).

As I received "tons" of letters in my mailbox, it was difficult for me to keep track of all the statements and letters. One day, I checked my past statements and found, to my shock, that an annual fee of $1,500 for the renewal of the annual fee. The bank did not call me to check if I wish to renew the card and pay this exorbitant fee.

I called their call center. Before I could tell them my issue, the call center staff offered to refund my annual fee, as he noticed that I have a lot of spending on the card. Is this the behavior of a thief - to levy a large annual fee and hope that the customer does not notice it? If they knew that I had sufficient spending for the waiver of the fee, why charged the fee in the first place?

I just went to the website of the bank to see if the annual fee for this card is stated. I was NOT able to find the annual fee, after searching through a few webpages. I got a lot of other information about the benefits offers, but NO INFORMATION about the annual fee. I had to get to the call center to get this information from the staff. I deplore this type of behavior - make it difficult for the customer to know the fee and levy it on the customer when he is not aware about it.

I have just written to the bank to give specific instructions that they are NOT to renew my credit card without my specific approval of the annual fee. We are dealing with people who behaves like thieves!.

Tan Kin Lian

7 comments:

zhummmeng said...

Same like insurance agents they are trained not to tell when not asked.Even if asked try to taichi or find excuse. Only give in when it is hopeless. With insurance agents it is not giving in but to tell lies and get away with false argument.

Recruit Ong said...

if u think about it this kind of behaviour is not that different from the pap garment's various schemes that require u to "opt-out", no? e.g. cdac contributions, organ transplant.

Vincent Sear said...

I'm unceasingly fascinated by your ability to link every issue to insurance and agents thereof.

Well, I think such wrath and vendetta should be directed at the companies. They recruited and trained the agents, who thought they were just doing a job.

Yes, yes, many realised they're highly paid through overcharging clients and went along with it since they're already highly paid.

But the root causes are the companies who designed the policies, sales procedures and next, the regulatory authority who condoned and endorsed them.

I'm not saying agents who oversold and misrepresented or even cheated are good people, but I think if the cause is to correct this culture turning decent jobseekers unscrupulous and unconscientious, best is to address root causes.

Lye Khuen Way said...

Ha ha, now. We come to more or less conclude that the "root cause" is the Authority ! Not just the agents nor the Insurance companies. That has all along been my & I dare say many others' opinions.

Unknown said...

not surprised at all by these 'unprofessional n dishonest act' by these companies n organisations in today's context (the worst has not arrived).

Recruit Ong said...

hehe the most blatant one is the withholding of your CPF money from your own withdrawal :)

Vincent Sear said...

CPF scheme, regardless of the complains of compulsory savings, has done many Singaporeans lots of good, that's for all to see.

However, the government shifts goalposts as it likes and apply laws retrospectively against the principle of law under disguise.

For example, let's say you started working at 21 and were promised full lump sum for retirement after 55. But at 45, government says no, and introduced minimum sum scheme.

By principle of law, the sum accumulated from 21 to 45 should be paid out at 55 including interest attributed to it. The sum accumulated after 45 then would fall under the new MSS. But that's not the case as government locks up all your funds from 21 onwards, even before such laws were enacted.

Well, nobody spoke for the Jews, nobody spoke for the unionists, nobody spoke for the communists, who'd speak for you when they come after you at wimps and fancies?

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