Monday, March 30, 2009

Maybank: Visa Debit Payment reinstated.

Previous to this, I was writing about someone having swiped my card.

Here's a piece of good news to all who haven't had any. Some time last week, I received a call from an agent of Maybank who told me that the amount that was swiped from my account will be absorbed by them!

The best part was that I didn't have to prove anything.. apart from writing a letter in..

The lesson learnt is that .. if you are in Malaysia, and intend to start a Maybank Visa Debit account (or at any other banks), think twice about putting too much into it. For even though the card may have many safety features, it is useless unless the human factors are vigilant in enforcing the protocol and procedure in checking that signatures on cards are matching.

Otherwise, just stick to the pin-based type of ATM card/EFTPOS. It may be a hassle, or look "uncool", but at least no one can simply swipe your card and use up all your money!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Maybank: Unauthorized Visa Debit Visa Transactions

On 7th March, I found out that my Maybank Debit Visa card was missing from my purse when I wanted to go to their branch in Uptown PJ to withdraw cash out. My mother told me to go home and check first...

Horrors beyond horrors, when I arrived home and checked online that my card has been swiped & used in unauthorized transactions by someone on a shopping spree across town on an amount of up to RM500!!

MY GOODNESS!!!

What was so distressing was that the transactions at the hypermarkets are manned by humans, and require a person's signature. It is understandable that the transactions at service stations were not manned, so no prior signature was required, but it seems that the transactions at TESCO and MYDIN were allowed to pass through.

The question I am asking here is, shouldn’t the staff at these terminals have checked that the signature on the transaction slip were to match the signature on the card?

Maybank switched their yellow ATM card to the Cherry Debit Visa card promoting the benefits of their "ease of shopping" and safety features of embedded chip.

However, but what I have realised from this incident is that although the bankcards in Australia have yet to be chip embedded, it was generally still very safe to use. EFTPOS is a commonplace practice, using normal bankcard for everyday transaction with the added security of pin-access to prevent fraud and unauthorized transactions from taking place.

In allowing the bank to switch from just an ATM to a Visa Debit card, customers would hope that Maybank will ensure that the security of its cards would not be compromised as it is too with the normal ATM card, as Maybank states on their website for the Visa Debit page info, listing among its benefits to provide “peace of mind with smart chip security”.

It can be seen here that the former Maybank Yellow ATM card seems to be even more safer as should these cards fall into the wrong hands, it still requires a pin keyed for any transactions to pass through, but the VISA Debit does not seem to provide the same kind of security. Further, even with an embedded pin card for supposed higher security is not very useful at the terminals if the personnel managing the terminals do not even bother to check whether the signatures of the cards are matching.

Perhaps Maybank should think twice about promoting the conversion from the ATM to the Visa Debit if that is the case as this will really shake the confidence of their customers in allowing merchants who have personnel who are not discerning, or do not care about the security concerns of their customers.

So today, attaching the printout of the police report I made yesterday, and my complaint letter, I sent in to the Maybank Mega Mandung. All I can do now is wait and see what the staff at Maybank will do.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Cultural Differences: Australian vs Malaysian Perspective to Appointment Keeping.

Today I had my first taste of "Malaysian Time" = meaning, being late.... It is generally a known practice here to be late an hour for Chinese Wedding Dinners.. however, today I realised that it translated itself to even work appointments as well!

When I was in Australia, every minute that I worked was calculated into my paycheck, so every minute counts! I had to wake up by six am every morning to get a call from my agent, and then catch the early public transport to go to work.

If I was late for work, it was ESSENTIAL that I informed the child care centre that I was going to be late due to legal work regulations in the childcare industry. If I was late to meet a friend by more than ten minutes, it was also a general practice to inform by way of a text message that we were going to be late!

So today, our appointment was set for 10.00am in the morning. I strolled in around 9.20ish. My colleague, Sheela, asked me why was I late?" when I entered the office. Then told me we were going to leave SOON.... However, *ding-dong-ding-dong* 15 minutes, 20 minutes later she still was fiddling with something in the office.... we only left with with about less than 15 mins to the time of our work appointment to see a client!

We arrived at the place of our appointment at the very late time of 10.25am... we thought we were late! However,

*SURPRISE * SURPRISE *

the person that we were going to meet was even LATER than us! Instead, we were redirected to another person who was the staff's senior to negotiate with!

It was then I realised that I was still in my "Australian mode of time" which was a bit irrelevent in Malaysia where almost most people are always late and never arrive at the pre-arranged time..... My colleague was complaining coz she had another appointment to go to later in the day as well....

Really, Malaysia Boleh. Everything also can.

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