A tale of 6 banks: getting a statement from last year.

[dafluff]

So this past week I had to deal with several banks. The mission: obtain a paper statement from last year. None of the banks that have online banking can provide statements that far back, so a task that should've taken at most 15 minutes, ended up being something like 3-4 hours over several days because I had to visit all the branches. None of the branches I visited were the main branch in Bali as I usually avoid going to main branches as they are usually much busier. Quick summary of the service:

Panin - The bank I use the most and had their in-branch number. I called ahead with my request, and they were ready when I got there. Printing fee: Rp 10,000 per page.

CIMB Niaga - Customer service rep was able to help me after a short wait. Printing fee: Rp 25,000 per page.

Mandiri - Can't help right away, since they need to print it out at the main branch (yes, this is 2016, we didn't enter a time warp). So either request it now, and come back in 2 days, or go directly to main branch. Decided on coming back. There will be a fee of Rp 20,000 per page. The fee varies by how far away from the current date the requested statement is, for no good reason other than a cash grab.

BRI - Printer down, can't print. CS girl doesn't know whether she would be able to print it out even if the printer was working, or whether we have to go to main branch. Decided to come back another time.

BCA - Can't help right away either, must come back in 5(!) working days while they get this ready. Fee is only Rp 2,500 per page however.

Danamon - CS Rep printed right away, and charge was Rp 10,000 per page.

 

[Smallworld]

Nice one. Just one question isn't tahapan buck biru from BCA an equivalent of bank statement?

 

[jstar]

Yes, but then you need to (have the discipline to) visit the BCA affiliate regularly to print the latest statements in your book. Also, they expire after some time. And via online banking you can only see recent transactions as well, so if you don't print on a regular base, you can have some issues.

Something else about statements; often the burden of proof of payments (for electricity, water, mortgage, etc.) lies with the client and not the creditor; keep those payment proofs you get via e-mail on your online banking!

 

[dafluff]

Nice one. Just one question isn't tahapan buck biru from BCA an equivalent of bank statement?

It is, but after a long period of not printing it out, they will just print out a one line summary of all the transactions missed, before continuing with individual transactions starting about 3-4 months back. So everything before that and after the last time you printed out the book will be consolidated into one line. This wouldn't have worked for my purpose. All the banks would do this, not just BCA.

 

[waarmstrong]

Why so many banks? We use Mandiri and Panin. Panin seems to have better personal service (it's a small nearby branch) and better interest rates while Mandiri has the most complete array of internet services, plus a number of relatives also have Mandiri accounts -- on-line transfers among them are free.

 

[atlantis]

It is, but after a long period of not printing it out, they will just print out a one line summary of all the transactions missed, before continuing with individual transactions starting about 3-4 months back. So everything before that and after the last time you printed out the book will be consolidated into one line.

Just for the record if you have a BCA tahapan gold (conditions to get it are minimal) ALL transactions will be recorded and printed in your bank book and this even if you do not maintain it updated for a year or more.

I didn't pass by any BCA cabang for more than a year, using only my debit card, online banking and ATMs. I recently had to update my bank book because I needed to retrieve a large amount in cash. 21 (!) books and half a day wasted later I got out of the bank with what I came for. I guess that people who were queuing after me to be received by one of the only two CSO officers available that day are still bitching about bule.

BNI also seem to keep a record of all transactions in your book, without resuming it to a one liner if you don't show up for months.

 

[atlantis]

Why so many banks? We use Mandiri and Panin. Panin seems to have better personal service (it's a small nearby branch) and better interest rates while Mandiri has the most complete array of internet services, plus a number of relatives also have Mandiri accounts -- on-line transfers among them are free.

If you do business, it quickly becomes interesting to have several banks and this for multiple reasons.

Most banks charge fees for any domestic transfer in between bank for example, meaning that you would be paying a fee (usually IDR 5.000) each time you transfer money from your single bank to any other bank.

Also, some of my clients would charge me their banking fee each time they transfer us money to pay their bills if it is to a different bank than theirs.

I do anything in between 5 to 15 ATM or online banking transaction a day and receive transfers everyday. You do the maths. If I would be using only one or two banks, at the end of the months it would be a fair amount wasted in banking fees for nothing.

At the opposite maintaining an account in several bank would cost me around only Rp 10.000 (the monthly admin fee) per bank per month and would save me most of the fees charged by banks for domestic transfer in between banks.

It has also an added advantage. It multiplies the possibilities of quick cash availability. Most banks and ATM would not allow you to withdraw more than IDR 10.000.000 per 24 hours. With 8 banks, my withdrawal possibilities are somewhat much more comfortable and avoid me the pain to have to queue to a loket.

I however reckon that if you are banking only for personal matters, having more than two banks may be odd.

 

[dafluff]

Why so many banks? We use Mandiri and Panin. Panin seems to have better personal service (it's a small nearby branch) and better interest rates while Mandiri has the most complete array of internet services, plus a number of relatives also have Mandiri accounts -- on-line transfers among them are free.

Those were both me and my wife's account. Some were for business others for personal use. One was opened because a relative with connection to the bank needed a boost in referrals, etc etc.

 

[Banana72]

BCA was not too bad for me (judging by Indonesian standard). I'm a bit luckier than dafluff. Paid the same fee, but only had to wait only a day for them to pull up the files.

Artha Graha: Waited a couple hours and the "Senior Guest Relation Officer" knows very little about how their own system works. Batting the eyelashes and talking flirty might work on some of her clients, but not to me, not to mention she repeated many many times that it was my 'fault' for coming with such unusual request (and managed to say it with a smile). She also said the bank had to charge Rp.20,000 per page even though they were blank pages (i can't remember exactly and they were not printed yet). I ended up leaving the place and told her to just email me the pages I needed and not get charged for the blank pages. Got my confirmation "no charges sir" by whatsapp after I arrived in the US. Good thing about the bank is that they give higher CD rates than BCA and Maybank.

Maybank: Not sure about now, but getting a printed statement was not hard at all, this was when the bank was still BII/Maybank. The teller just put the dates and the year and off I went with two pages of consolidated statements.

 

[waarmstrong]

If you do business, it quickly becomes interesting to have several banks and this for multiple reasons. .... I however reckon that if you are banking only for personal matters, having more than two banks may be odd.

Those were both me and my wife's account. Some were for business others for personal use. One was opened because a relative with connection to the bank needed a boost in referrals, etc etc.

Thanks for the explanation. If I had been thinking more broadly, I would probably not asked the question. Even for personal banking, those transfer fees can add up.

 

[Davita]

I just checked my HSBC account and my downloadable e-Statements and C.C. e-Statements go back 1 year. Is this not normal?

 

[jstar]

Depends on the bank and type of account. For regular consumer accounts, Mandiri was okay up to 6 months, but with BCA we only had 3 months.