Consolidation of Financial Services
I was doing a review of the financial services I have after reading in the papers the news where a maid forge her employer's signature to encash a cheque and subsequently fleeing Singapore back to Phillipines. The review basically got me round to closing down my dormant accounts and terminating whatever links that I had maintained between dormant and active accounts.
In this review session, StandardChartered's e$aver account was the first to go since it was not longer matching the interest rates offered by other banks. When I initially opened the account, the terms were such that should the account balance be zero for a period of 30 days, the account will auto close. However, that had not materialised and now the website states that a trip down to StandardChartered branches is neccessary to process the account closure. Regardless, I made a call to the StandardChartered hotline and got the guy on the line to process the closing of the account for me, reminding him of the initial terms of auto-closure in 30 days. For added security, I purposely logged onto its internet banking site multiple times with wrong password to get the logon locked. Second time StandardChartered has lost me as a customer.
The next account that got closed was finatiQ. finatiQ had a good offering when its investment account offered much better interest rates than other deposit accounts. Furthermore, it provided an easy means to purchase the unit trusts it was distributing since the investment amount could then be conveniently debited from the investment account as long as funds are available. Somehow, finatiQ has lost its edge over time, offering lower interest rates than other providers and also not being able to match other UT distributors in terms of discounts. Furthermore, while finatiQ came onto the market very strongly, after the past few years, it has gradually sunk into oblivion being overshadowed by the more niche providers such as Fundsupermart and DollarDex.
One interesting question that both establishments asked when I indicated my intention to close my accounts was what is my reason for closing. Both got the same reply that I am seeking better rates elsewhere. Both countered offered that the accounts can be maintained at zero balance but were declined on the basis that I am not keen to maintain dormant accounts and be liable should the accounts be compromised.
Credit cards should be consolidated too. To date, I have cut up one StandardChartered card, one Titanium card from OCBC... eventually, I guess I will only hold about four to five cards which provide the best promotions, one American Express, two Visa and two Mastercard. The duplication of cards is just for the cheapskate reason that I will have more discounts to choose from :P
In this review session, StandardChartered's e$aver account was the first to go since it was not longer matching the interest rates offered by other banks. When I initially opened the account, the terms were such that should the account balance be zero for a period of 30 days, the account will auto close. However, that had not materialised and now the website states that a trip down to StandardChartered branches is neccessary to process the account closure. Regardless, I made a call to the StandardChartered hotline and got the guy on the line to process the closing of the account for me, reminding him of the initial terms of auto-closure in 30 days. For added security, I purposely logged onto its internet banking site multiple times with wrong password to get the logon locked. Second time StandardChartered has lost me as a customer.
The next account that got closed was finatiQ. finatiQ had a good offering when its investment account offered much better interest rates than other deposit accounts. Furthermore, it provided an easy means to purchase the unit trusts it was distributing since the investment amount could then be conveniently debited from the investment account as long as funds are available. Somehow, finatiQ has lost its edge over time, offering lower interest rates than other providers and also not being able to match other UT distributors in terms of discounts. Furthermore, while finatiQ came onto the market very strongly, after the past few years, it has gradually sunk into oblivion being overshadowed by the more niche providers such as Fundsupermart and DollarDex.
One interesting question that both establishments asked when I indicated my intention to close my accounts was what is my reason for closing. Both got the same reply that I am seeking better rates elsewhere. Both countered offered that the accounts can be maintained at zero balance but were declined on the basis that I am not keen to maintain dormant accounts and be liable should the accounts be compromised.
Credit cards should be consolidated too. To date, I have cut up one StandardChartered card, one Titanium card from OCBC... eventually, I guess I will only hold about four to five cards which provide the best promotions, one American Express, two Visa and two Mastercard. The duplication of cards is just for the cheapskate reason that I will have more discounts to choose from :P
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