Banks Are Blood Suckers!

Why I said so?

Today on lunch time, I went to a bank with "tiger head" which I used to deal with all these while to buy demand draft/banker cheque to pay my monthly study loan installment. This is not the first, but the 10th time I bought the demand draft from the same bank.

As usual, I completed the routine procedure by filling up the form, took my turn then when my number was called, I attended to the counter to buy the bank draft. There I met a very impolite staff. With her sour face, she asked me "if the RM5 charges deduct from this account?"

I thought I heard it wrongly. I thought she said they will deduct some commission from my account for issuing the banker cheque. Just to clarify, I replied "Huh?". Then with her unsmiling face, she told me one more time "If you wanna deduct RM5 charges from this account?"

I was shocked and couldn't believe my ears. I told her "RM5? This is not the first time I buy bank draft from your bank. Last time they only charge 50 cents for commission, why now got RM5 charges?". With very unfriendly attitude, she replied "This is a normal charges".

"Why before these there weren't such charges?", I started to feel a bit impatient. Then the girl replied me in this way, "Before these we forgot to charge. You still wanna buy?"

With that kind of bad attitude and also the illogical answer given, I was really pissed off and just told her "No! I don't want to buy anymore. Banks are cheaters!!"

That's the reason why I said banks are blood suckers! They use our hard earned money to make profit, they suppose to provide the clients with some services in return.

But in the real world that is not the case! Banks charged unreasonably on various services given to the clients! Do you think RM5 for issuing just a banker cheque sounds reasonable?!! I certainly not feel so and it is just ridiculous!!

Furthermore do you think the staff at the bank were really that dumb and forget to charge RM5 for 9 times in a row and only remembered at the 10th time?! If that is the case, then I would suggest the bank to reconsider their staff quality and perhaps it is time to hire smarter batch of staff!!

This incident certainly spoiled my mood for the entire day!!

6th Payment

You can ignore this. It is just to record my 6th payment of my study loan on 19th June 2009 (Friday).

5th Payment

Nothing much to share here. Just want to record my 5th payment of Biasiswa Pinjaman Kerajaan Negeri Sarawak on 22/05/2009 (Friday) for the month of May.

My 4th Payment

I will be flying to KL on MAS Airline at 1155 am today for a working trip. I may need to stay in KL for around 2 months, more or less.

Yesterday, I suddenly thought of maybe I will face some difficulties if I want to make my payment in KL. Therefore, I decided to pay for 2 months in one go! I bought a demand draft worth RM250, the total amount for my March and April payment.

That's why next month I won't be paying the loan. But if possible, I will pay again on May because at that time suppose I shall be back from my working trip.

Finally... My Receipts Are Here!

[Letter of payment approval and balance]

Finally! I got my receipt for my study loan payment! In the previous posts, I mentioned that I called SPANS (Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam Negeri Sarawak) to ask for my status of payment as I paid twice but there was no single feedback to me. Then, the lady in charge told me that they did receive my payment in the form of demand drafts and she already prepared the receipts, just that they will only send them once after I made 3 or 4 times of payment.

[December 2008 receipt]

Luckily the lady really keep her promise! This afternoon I received 3 receipts (one for each payment, starting December last year, then January and February this year) and also a letter of payment approval from SPANS. My first reaction when I saw the letter on the table was... "Finally!".

[January 2009 receipt]

Now I can be more relief and can continue making my payment from month to month. If possible, I would like to pay more if I have extra money. But then got rumors saying that this year there will be no increment to our salary!!*_* What a sad news yet I still fingers cross it wouldn't be the case! Looks like I may not have extra money to pay more if the rumors is true!

[February 2009 receipt]

Story Behind The 3rd Payment

Nothing much to share in this post. Just another boring stuff about my loan payback. You can just ignore it if you like.

I made my 3rd payment today. Still, I haven't receive any feedback or prove of my previous payments yet. I stated in my previous post My 2nd Payment that if they didn't notify me about this, I will either call or email them.

I made my call last week. Called on lunch time after 12.30pm but no body pickup. Normal la.. lunch time ma.. Ok, called again after 1pm. Same result but i still can accept because I realized that this is dealing with government. I knew how good their service are.

Called again about 3 something pm. The phone engaged. Kept trying for few times and finally somebody picked up my call. Finally! The operator passed my call to study loan division where a lady picked up.

Me: Cik, saya nak check status bayaran balik pinjaman saya.
The lady: You ada hantar cek kah belum?
Me: Dah! Dah 2 kali saya hantar.
The lady: Ape nombor fail anda?
Me: (Luckily I still remembered and I told her)
The lady: Ok, you tunggu sekejap. Saya pergi check. Bolehkah anda tunggu?
Me: Berapa lama? Ataupun nanti you call balik atau saya call lagi?
The lady: (After some hesitation...) Oklah... nanti you call balik, nombor ini... direct line (She gave me the number).

After about 10 minutes, I called back.
Me: Hello... Saya yang call tadi.
The lady: Ya ya... ada terima check anda, dua kali. Tapi saya tidak hantar resit dulu sebab hanya 2 kali saja bayar. Saya tunggu 3, 4 kali baru sekali hantar.
Me: (To double confirm...) Saya dah bayar 2 kali kan? Jadi hanya akan hantar resit lepas 3, 4 kali saya bayar?
The lady: Ya.
Me: Ok la macam tu. Terima kasih ya!

After the call, I felt more relief because at least I know they did receive my cheques and they were not missing in the space. Now I can continue with my consecutive payment. I will remember that lady's word... she said she will send me the receipt after 3 or 4 times I paid. Lets wait and see if he keep her promise. If not... I gonna look for her again!

My 2nd Payment

Going to pay the second payment of my study loan. Almost a month ago I had made the first payment using the same method - by Maybank's Demand Draft. Then, I used registered letter to post the demand draft to SPANS.


However, there is one thing I felt very disappointed with SPANS service. After one month I made the payment, there is still no feedback from them whether they received my demand draft or not.

This really worried me. Last time when I posted back the payback form they sent to me, there was no feedback until last year, I suddenly received a warning letter from them accusing me for not paying back the money.


Well, I think SPANS should issue a receipt to me if they received my bank draft as a prove of reception. I will give them some more time, as I understand how "good" government services usually are. If I don't receive anything in the near future to certified that I had made some payment, then I will take action by either call the office or email to remind them for their good service!

Making First Payment With Registered Letter

The first payment of my study loan will be due on 31st December 2008 which is just half a month to go. As I mentioned in my previous post, I bought the demand draft from bank last Friday for this purpose.

Today, I went to post office to post the bank draft to the authority concern which is Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam (SPA) Negeri Sarawak. I prepared the envelope together with the draft last night.

[Envelope for the bank draft]

[Demand draft slipped into the envelope]

This afternoon when I went to the newly-still-in-progress-renovated Sibu post office, I can't believe the crowd was so tremendous. Well, I know usually post office will be crowded but this seldom happen to stamp selling counter. This afternoon, even the stamp counter was crowded. I thought maybe the counter is still very new, so people choose to use new facility?

After some observation, I discovered that it was not what I thought. The long queue was because stamp fanatics were busy buying first day cover! I waited for about 20 minutes before my turn to be served.

[Long queue at stamp selling counter]

I told the staff on duty, "Register". With her professionalism, she immediately understood what I was trying to say. Ya, I would like to post my bank draft using registered letter because I felt more secure with it.

She quickly took out a register letter's sticker together with a 20 cents stamp to me. "Satu sembilan", she said. So the registered letter costs me RM1.90 with RM1.70 is the register service charge and RM0.20 for postal stamp.

[Minor part of the registered letter's sticker with reference number on it]

She then helped me to tear down part of the sticker and sticked it onto my envelope and put a date stamping onto the receipt which is actually the rear part of the sticker paper.

[Major part of the sticker with barcode on it]

[The registered letter's receipt]

After I stuck the 20 cents stamp on the right top corner of the envelope, I handed it back to the staff in charge. My part was done! I had made my first payment. Now the next thing I should do is pray hard and hope SPA Sarawak will receive my bank draft then issue me an official receipt on my payment!

[The registered letter and it is prepared to be posted!]

Steps of buying registered letter service at post office:

1. Queue at the stamp selling counter and wait for your turn.

2. Once your turn, hand the letter to the staff-in-charge and tell him/her "register" or "surat berdaftar".

3. The staff will scale your letter, then tell you how much you should pay for the service. Just pay the amount.

4. The staff will give you a sticker and a stamp. There are 2 parts of the sticker. Tear the major part with a lot of barcode on it. Then, stick it on your envelope where you wrote the receiver's address. Just stick at any empty space. Put the stamp onto the top right corner too.

5. Hand back the envelope to same staff and take the date-stamped receipt.

Buying Bank Draft

Honestly, this is my first time buying bank draft. Before this, I just heard about it but never saw one.

If you still remembered, in my previous post I mentioned about the state government was chasing on me to pay back my study loan, then you will know what I bought the bank draft for. As the first payment should me make not later than 31st December 2008, therefore I think is about the time I make a move.

Buying bank draft is not as easy as I imagined. What I thought is very simple, go to bank, pay the amount of bank draft we wish to purchase, then the bank will issue us with a voucher-like ticket and that's all.

It is not that simple dude! The exact procedure (according to Sibu Maybank style) :

1. Get a special form called "Application for Remittance" from the express counter.
Gosh! the form look so complicated and so many thing you need to fill in! I hate it but well... no choice, you need to follow procedure.

[Carbon copy of Application for Remittance form - is a big one!]

2. The thing you need to fill in inside the form:

a) Type of remittance you wish to make. There are few types to choose from including Banker's cheque, demand draft, telegraphic transfer, payment order and etc. For my case which I need to pay outside Sibu, the staff told me I should go for Demand Draft. Banker's cheque is for payment within an area, in my case the area is Sibu.

b) Personal particulars including name, occupation, IC Number, address, telephone number and purpose of payment.

c) Beneficiary particulars - I just filled in the name and also the address.

d) Remittance amount

e) Signature

[Fill in the necessary fields]

3. After filled in the form, take a number, wait for your turn.

4. Once your turn, hand the form to the officer in charge. The officer will help you to process.

5. After process, the bank will issue you with a demand draft. Demand draft actually just look like a normal bank cheque but with the word "Demand Draft" printed on top of it and all the necessary information preprinted by the bank.

[A demand draft]

Oh ya, please be reminded, beside the amount of remittance you need to pay, the bank will charge you another small sum of money as stamp duty charge. I thought it is called commission, but the officer filled the extra charge under stamp duty instead of commission. In my case, the charge is RM0.50.

[Stamp duty charge - RM0.50 (Depends on amount of remittance)]

With this demand draft, I will have to post it to Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam Negeri Sarawak soon as first payment of my study loan to avoid me being sued by them! This is my first experience I hope everything will go smoothly.

Is Pay Back Time!

This afternoon I received a letter from state government. I was a bit shocked. At a sudden, I can't figure out why state government sent letter to me. Therefore, I couldn't wait to open the envelope to see what is the content of the letter.

At the moment when I tear off the envelope, something strike my mind. I suddenly thought of a possibility why state government sent letter to me. It must be something to do with study loan.

When I took out the letter from the envelope, as expected - what I thought is what I get! State government asking me to pay back my study loan which I took from them about 9 years ago!

Maybe you will think, why the state government took so long to ask the loan back? Actually, they did ask once from me the year I finished my study. That time, they sent a form to me to fill in about payment details, I filled in and sent it back. However, I had been waited for years and years but no respond from them at all.

Then in June 2007, I received a warning letter from them saying if I didn't pay back the loan, they will take legal action against me. I was angry at that time because all these while I was waiting for their reply on the pay back method, the amount to pay and other details but I never get any respond from them, yet I had been accused for didn't want to pay back the loan. Therefore, I replied their letter by clarify my standing, expressed my dissatisfaction for their accusation and also asked for payback details.

After more than a year, this afternoon I just got a respond from them. State government sent this letter to me informing about the amount and also the method I can use to pay them back the loan. Although I feel the information given are still not detail enough, at least it's much better than the one I received more than a year ago which were just bunch of meaningless accusation.

Look like I got no choice but to start the payback end of this year. In fact I never refuse to pay back all these while. I just waiting for clearer instruction from the authority concern so that the payback can be done smoothly.

There goes my money! :(