Terrible Experience with Banks in Malaysia (Part 1)
It has been some time I didn’t post anything on Medium or any social medias beside sharing some events that either host by my peers or myself. This post is not related to technologies or software development, it is more about my personal encounter with various banks in Malaysia.
Before I go into the details of the stories, let me share what should have had happened once a person die leaving assets in Malaysia.
Once a person dies leaving assets in Malaysia, the said assets will become “The Estate of the Deceased”, the next kin (or family members) will have to apply for the relevant grant of representation from High Court of Malaya in order to deal with the “Estate” of the deceased. If the decease has his last Will, Grant of Probate will be issued and proving Executor(s) accordingly, whereas without Will, Letter of Administration will be granted to the agreed representer(s). Basically, Grant of Probate and Letter of Administration are the same documents, but the source of power are different, yet with the same legal power.
My father passed away late October 2020, he has his last Will, and we handed over to our family lawyer to register with High Court of Malaya for Grant of Probate. Before we proceed with the process, it is an good idea to update the assets list, attached to the applications. The assets list (especially bank accounts) might be changed since the Will is written.
We are not withdrawing money, we just want the account to be freeze.
There are total of 26 commercial banks,16 Islamic banks and 11 investment banks in Malaysia. My siblings and I knew that our late father owned bank accounts with Ambank, Citibank, Hong Leong Bank, Maybank, RHB Bank, UOB Bank, OCBC Bank, but we are not sure about the rest, so my siblings and I come out with a potential list to visit. The objectives are very simple, to confirm if our late father have any accounts with their bank, if yes, would like the bank to freeze the account until we come back with Grant of Probate.
This is the story about dealing with the banks in Malaysia.
When we went to the banks, we start the our conversation with the officer like this: “My father had passed away on xxxxx, and I would like to check, if he has any type of accounts with your bank”.
In most cases, the officer will replied us: “I’m sorry for your loss.” or “My condolences to you and your family.”, then follow by the usual procedures, except for one bank! I visited total of 12 banks, ONLY one bank not showing any sympathy nor respect for someone who just lost their father, but rudely and refuse to cooperate.
Alliance Bank, CIMB Bank, HSBC Bank, Public Bank, Affin Bank
This is the banks that have branches nearby our house, so we also went to check them out first, the officers from this branches are helpful enough to check for us upon we produce the death certificate, and they confirmed that our late father don’t have any account with them.
Hong Leong Bank
Officer from Hong Leong Bank want us to produce our original birth certificate as well as the original death certificate of our late father, after he explained to us, we are happily to show the necessary documents.
The officer explained to us that our late father don’t have much left in his bank account with Hong Leong Bank, hence they will closed the account and give us the balance in cash upon we present the death certificate and proof of we are his next kin. Luckily, we are staying nearby, and 30minutes later, we closed the first account and we proceed to next bank.
Personally I don’t like Hong Leong Bank at all, but this branch service is good. (It still didn’t change my view on them, they are suck overall.)
Maybank
I went to Maybank branch at Desa Parkcity to freeze the account, the officer is very helpful and politely tell me that my late father home branch is not here, but he can assist me to freeze the account, if we received our Grant of Probate, and we feel to troublesome travel to the home branch, he can assist me for the processes, but will take some time due to he has to forward the documents to the home branch and wait them to return the documents to them.
To my surprise, this officer take extra service to assist us and not just divert us to the home branch. Bravo to the officer.
Ambank, UOB, OCBC Bank
We know the home branch of our late father accounts was, so we managed to freeze the account without any problem.
RHB Bank
From the monthly bank statement, we know our late father has most of his monies keep in RHB bank, so he has a relationship manager to handle his account. My siblings and I contacted our late father Relationship Manager, she is kind enough to help us to freeze the account, as well as advise us to pay off the outstanding of the credit card, to prevent the role over interest due to overdue payments. With the information provided by the relationship manager, we paid off the credit card outstanding, and the account is freeze next day. Sound okay right?
Citibank
Remember the only bank that very rude? Yes, they are Citibank!
First, I went to Citibank at Damansara Perdana branch, when my turn come, I told the officer that my father had passed away, and I would like them to freeze the account, and check for me if my late father had any outstanding payment for his Citibank credit card, so I can settle the outstanding amount.
The officer didn’t even bother to let me finished my sentence and interrupted the conversation by saying, “Go to court to get the order, else we won’t reveal anything.”
I show her the original death certificate, original of my birth certificate and certified true copy of the Will, yet she insisted that all the documents are NOT court documents. She refused to do anything.
I went home and discuss it with our family lawyer. He prepared a letter stated that I am the executor of the Will, and we just want the bank to freeze the account, not asking the bank to release any monies to us yet.
With the document, I went to Citibank head office at Jalan Ampang the next day. After 10 minutes of waiting, is my turn. Just like the day before, I told the officer my intention and show her all the documents, and guess what? Exactly the same replied by this officer.
Two different officers, from two different branches, using the same words, they must be very well trained! Want me to show the court orders, refuse to freeze the account nor reveal if there are any outstanding payment for the credit card.
I’m NOT asking for the MONEY, I’m PAYING you my MONEY, WHY it is so DIFFICULTS?
To be frank, I’m superb angry and pissed off, as for the result, I told the officer that, I would like her to write it down on a piece of paper together with her name and Staff ID (I don’t need her NRIC, as I respect her privacy) stated that she is NOT going to freeze the deceased account and insisted on seeing the court documents. I also told her that I will hold her personally responsible for any transaction since that day, especially any out going monies from the deceased account, because as far as I know, Citibank ONLY she know the owner of this account is passed away.
Only then, she is unwillingly ask me to fill up a form to freeze the account.
Finally, we managed to freeze all the bank accounts while we are waiting for the Grant of Probate.
This is the end of the part 1 of the stories, December 2020.
