FRANKly Speaking

So with Standard Chartered Manhanttan Card downgrading from a 5% cashback to 3%, the card suddenly seem useless to me now. I have spent sometime searching for the 'perfect' card that suit my online expenditure and Man card was the only one back then.

Here's a tip that I always swear on:

Never to get a credit card from a local bank.
None of their cards are rewarding enough.
At all.

Then came Frank by OCBC.
I mean it was there for sometime already, but neh, I was too blind to see the benefits.
Benefits are obvious for an online shopper like me.
6% rebates on spending up till $1000 per month.
That's $720 extra for you to spend, much much more than you can ever dream of getting from your 0.5%p.a. saving account.

Here's me repeating again.

SIX PERCENT PEOPLE. SIX PERCENT. 

So excited we were, my colleague and I went down to the Vivo branch where we can see the 120 card designs and pick them like how we shop for clothes. That's when things start to go way way way bad. 

My Information Was Saved

Registration was essentially smooth, too smooth in fact for me. 

You see, I had a savings account with OCBC back in my university days and I shut it there after. 

So initially I was amazed that my details like NRIC, address were still stored - really saved all the hassle and stuff. But... ok I will continue this later on. 

Colleague Had To Login To CPF Twice

For credit card applications, we have to show the bank some CPF statement to prove our income. The colleague had to do it twice and on top of that getting his NRIC printed out twice. 

Because of a certain someone's incompetency, because of the general slow Internet connection the Vivo branch is using, what could have been a half hour registration took nearly an hour.

Still that's fine, I mean my application was approved within the day. 

That's when all the shit began. 

I wasn't able to use my card for online purchases. 

Now as a added security system, people who shopped online had to use a one-time password (OTP) to authenticate purchases. During the credit card registration, I stated that I will require both the token, and OTP pin to be sent to my phone. 

Nothing happened.

So I called the bank. 

They said I have a token active.

From 2009.

Yes you see the relation now?

The bank closed my account and DID NOT deactivate my token. 

Thankfully I was able to find it, if not.. 

Shortly after, I got to know varied information from various CSO that

1) my iBank account together with my token is still active

2) my ibank account is not active, but my token is. 

no one.

NO ONE (until today) explained to me why the lapse was there. 

The bank has essentially breached two points

1) failure to completely deactivate my account and all things related to it.

2) failure to deactivate the OLD device even as they rolled out the new one in 2010 or something. 

Let me just add a point 

3) my information are still kept for god knows what purpose. You know how some people somehow gets your contact information? Not accusing the bank of anything, but such situation can happen. My privacy, was no longer mine, because the bank chose to keep my details for whatever reasons. 

P/S I also don't actually care if it is a 'normal practice' to do something like this or not, because this doesn't sound any normal to me. At all. 

Oh and my colleague?

He never got his application done successfully.

This is despite having to print out his statements + NRIC

Despite being patient with the incompetency

He even got a note saying that there's something wrong with the application and the bank will contact him soon.

NO ONE DID. 

You see what I mean about local banks now?

Is there any upside?

Sure, the guy who served me was great (Firdaus)

The CSOs at the call centre who walked me through my agony were really great as well, after all they aren't they people who f-ed my accounts up. 

Bottom line, maybe most people aren't as unlucky as the two of us.

But the next time you cancel your account, make sure everything is done thoroughly. 

Dear OCBC, you told me to relax and that you made banking simple.

Well, the past 1-2 weeks was neither relaxing nor simple.