Costomers confused and upset by bank closures<\/p>\n
By Stevie Emilia<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government told people not to worry about
\nthe closing of 38 ailing banks last month. But not only were
\ncustomers worried, they were confused and upset as well.<\/p>\n
Fiolita, a manpower consultant, was confused when she learned
\nthat Bank Papan Sejahtera, where she obtained her house loan, was
\none of the banks being closed.<\/p>\n
Her first reaction was to urge her husband to rush to the bank
\nthe next day to get more information about their remaining debt
\nand the documents for their house.<\/p>\n
"I was really worried that we wouldn't get the documents.
\nThings were not clear and I was confused. I did not want to lose
\nthe money that we had spent and saved all this time," the mother
\nof a 14-month-old daughter told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Fiolita, 28, also was worried upon hearing rumors she would be
\nrequired to pay the rest of her debt at once, not every month as
\nwas her usual practice.<\/p>\n
"I keep hoping that it (the rumor) was not true. How could we
\nget that amount of money?"<\/p>\n
She usually pays Rp 900,000 a month, and she still has 14 more
\nyears to pay off her loan.<\/p>\n
She applied for a loan to buy a house in Serpong, West Java,
\nin December 1997, a year after her marriage. Bank Papan was the
\nfirst bank which approved her application.<\/p>\n
"I bought the house because I was tired of renting houses,
\nmoving from one place to another. And my husband agreed. At that
\ntime, we thought that it would be better to spend our money on
\nthe house instead of continuing to spend the money renting. It's
\nlike having a savings account that we never touch," Fiolita said.<\/p>\n
But she is afraid that her hopes have turned sour.<\/p>\n
"When my husband went to the bank the next day, after the
\nclosure, the bank employees said they could not serve customers
\nbecause they were on strike demanding better compensation,"
\nFiolita said.<\/p>\n
A few days later, Bank Papan officials agreed to serve its
\nformer customers, issuing verification letters to allow them to
\ntake care of their financial matters at an appointed bank.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the letters were issued only to customers
\nwishing to close or transfer their savings accounts, not to
\ncreditors.<\/p>\n
Last week, Fiolita finally received a verification letter to
\ntake care of her banking business at an appointed bank, in her
\ncase, Bank BNI.<\/p>\n
There was a long line at her new bank. And when she reached
\nthe front of the line, although she was not fined for her late
\nloan payment, she only was given a simple payment receipt.<\/p>\n
"I was surprised. The receipt was not like the one I was used
\nto receiving when paying my debt. There were no details of the
\nremaining debt. The receipt was just like one you receive when
\nmaking a savings deposit," Fiolita said.<\/p>\n
"How can I feel reassured or calm down. How can I prove that I
\nhave paid my loan with such a receipt," she added.<\/p>\n
That was not the end of her worries.<\/p>\n
A Bank BNI official said that the bank was "temporarily"
\nappointed to handle Bank Papan's former customers and another
\nbank eventually would handle Fiolita's debt payments.<\/p>\n
"And as of today, there's no guarantee that we'll get our
\ndocuments as promised, and no information on what bank will take
\ncare of us," Fiolita said. "We need to be certain about this.
\nUntil then, we won't stop worrying."<\/p>\n
The government closed 38 banks on March 13 in a bid to clean
\nup the country's banking sector.<\/p>\n
When it announced the closures, the government said it would
\nguarantee people's deposits, savings accounts and other accounts.<\/p>\n
Bank BNI is among five banks appointed by the government to
\nhandle customers of the closed banks. The other four banks are
\nBank Central Asia, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Dagang Negara and
\nBank Danamon.<\/p>\n
Many customers have had unexpected experiences in this whole
\nunusual process.<\/p>\n
Utari, an accountant living in Depok, south of Jakarta, said
\nshe never suspected her bank would be closed, not until she was
\ntold by her parents two days after the announcement.<\/p>\n
"I knew the government would close some banks. But I did not
\nread any news hinting that my bank would be one of them," the
\nformer Bank Mashill Utama customer told the Post.<\/p>\n
The first thing that came to her mind was not her savings
\naccount, which the government fully guaranteed, but her unpaid
\ncredit card bills at the bank.<\/p>\n
She went to the bank's branch office in Margonda, Depok, to
\npay her credit card bill and transfer her money to a savings
\naccount in another bank. But when she arrived at the office,
\nthere were no bank employees there.<\/p>\n
The next day, after taking the day off from her office, she
\nwent to Bank Mashill's office on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta,
\nonly to be told that she had to go to BCA to take care of the
\nmatter.<\/p>\n
So, she went to BCA's branch office in Depok.<\/p>\n
At BCA, Utari was told to get a verification letter from Bank
\nMashill in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The BCA official also told her that after getting the letter,
\nshe still had to wait because at that time BCA only was handling
\nthe deposits and accounts of Mashill's customers, not their
\nunpaid bills.<\/p>\n
"Why didn't anyone tell me in the first place that I should
\nget a verification letter? It's weird," she said.<\/p>\n
However, she did not give up.<\/p>\n
The next day, she went back to Bank Mashill in Jakarta to get
\nthe letter. There, she was told the closed bank only was giving
\nverification letters to customers wishing to transfer or withdraw
\ntheir deposits or saving accounts, not those wishing to pay their
\ncredit card bills. However, she could not withdraw her money
\nbecause she had not paid her bill.<\/p>\n
"I was really upset. I wanted to get my money and pay my
\nbills, so why was I being treated like that," Utari asked.<\/p>\n
She called the bank's office almost every day to find out
\nwhether she could get a verification letter. But she was simply
\ntold to wait.<\/p>\n
"I don't want to be charged for late payment," Utari said of
\nher efforts. According to her, customers are charged up to 4
\npercent of their debt anytime they fail to pay their credit card
\nbill on time.<\/p>\n
And it was not until March 30 that she finally got her
\nverification letter.<\/p>\n
"Finally, I got it, after sweating and wasting my energy ...
\nsurprisingly, it took me less than an hour to pay all my bills --
\nwithout any late charges -- and transfer my money to my savings
\naccount in BNI," said Utari.<\/p>\n
"But after having all of these experiences, I swear I will
\nnever put my money in a private bank again. You never know ...
\nwhat will happen," she added. Apparently she based her reasoning
\non the fact that the government allowed state banks to continue
\noperating even though they are not much better off than some of
\nthe private banks which were closed.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/costomers-confused-and-upset-by-bank-closures-1447893297",
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