I got a frantic call from Nanay last week. They received a letter from my local bank that my checking account is “dormant” and because of that it’s being debited 200Php every month. The letter said it was their second notice, but Nanay was adamant she never received any besides this one.

Anyway, the branch manager promptly replied to my email. I wanted to know if my account was below the minimum balance and since I’ve not used it for 2 years, how much was left? She said the account was above the minimum of 5K Php, but they charge it 200Php because it’s not in use.

Any cheque I issued will be returned to say the account is not active.  Apparently that’s different from being bounced because of low fund. All the same you will be charged by your creditor.

This brought memories of my trip in Pinas back in 2002. I wanted to transact in Makati in the same bank but my branch was in the province. We had to pay a % of the amount I wanted transferred because “it’s a different branch”. They’re the same freaking bank but hey! I still have to pay them for using their services. I can’t imagine how much I will be charged if I did a bank-to-bank transfer.

Worse, I had to fill in a form & they faxed it to my branch. I had to pay for a “fax line”. WTF?!

There was nothing I could do by pay! If I transferred 10K Php that day, I probably paid them 20% of it. That might be an over-estimated figure, but it sure felt like daylight robbery to me!

I was so incensed I wrote Inquirer’s consumer issue column (I forgot which already) & the journalist featured it afterwards. She had the same complaints.

Obviously the situation isn’t any better. How can our banks justify charging my account for being dormant? They’re already using that dormant money but they want to eat all of it too? Isn’t it enough they charge a high fee for accounts that are below their minimum balance?

Ayy, onli in da Pilipins!