23.Julwho’s making up rules as they go along?
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!
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 12:19 pm and is filed under consumer issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
i have an account in equitable bank, 20Kphp and after a year, i visited phls, i went to the bank to get something, the manager said, they close the account and took the lot, due to dormant account for a year.
I wanted to bomb the bank that time.
No letters, no calls, they just help themselves.
It is in Cubao branch .
I never bank in phils anymore.PUTs ME OFF
I’ve been thinking the same thing. kahit naman dormant, nagagamit pa rin nila yung pera technically. kainis at para kang iginigisa sa sarili mong mantika no?
francesca, grabe naman yan!!!
Ay naku dapat talagang maalis na yung pera na yun sa checking account na yan.
tito rolly, exactly! It is so unfair. Mga simpleng bagay na ito dapat naiiisip nang mga lawmakers natin. Hindi yung kung anu-anong walang namang importansya ginagawa like flying to Pacquiao’s games…
Ay buwisit nga yung dormant account rules na yun, do any other countries have that rule? In Sweden, the banks kept Edward’s accounts open from 1999-2005 even if they held 0.00 and 0.02 kr respectively, and even if he was registered at the tax office as currently residing in Pinas.
hi christianne
They do that here too! When I asked my an account to be closed, the rep kept telling me not to do it as I can leave it dormant for as long as I want - you know just in case I *want* to use it again in the future.
All it cost them really is a few “bits” in the filing system.