Costomers confused and upset by bank closures

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): The government told people not to worry about the closing of 38 ailing banks last month. But not only were customers worried, they were confused and upset as well.

Fiolita, a manpower consultant, was confused when she learned that Bank Papan Sejahtera, where she obtained her house loan, was one of the banks being closed.

Her first reaction was to urge her husband to rush to the bank the next day to get more information about their remaining debt and the documents for their house.

"I was really worried that we wouldn't get the documents. Things were not clear and I was confused. I did not want to lose the money that we had spent and saved all this time," the mother of a 14-month-old daughter told The Jakarta Post.

Fiolita, 28, also was worried upon hearing rumors she would be required to pay the rest of her debt at once, not every month as was her usual practice.

"I keep hoping that it (the rumor) was not true. How could we get that amount of money?"

She usually pays Rp 900,000 a month, and she still has 14 more years to pay off her loan.

She applied for a loan to buy a house in Serpong, West Java, in December 1997, a year after her marriage. Bank Papan was the first bank which approved her application.

"I bought the house because I was tired of renting houses, moving from one place to another. And my husband agreed. At that time, we thought that it would be better to spend our money on the house instead of continuing to spend the money renting. It's like having a savings account that we never touch," Fiolita said.

But she is afraid that her hopes have turned sour.

"When my husband went to the bank the next day, after the closure, the bank employees said they could not serve customers because they were on strike demanding better compensation," Fiolita said.

A few days later, Bank Papan officials agreed to serve its former customers, issuing verification letters to allow them to take care of their financial matters at an appointed bank.

Unfortunately, the letters were issued only to customers wishing to close or transfer their savings accounts, not to creditors.

Last week, Fiolita finally received a verification letter to take care of her banking business at an appointed bank, in her case, Bank BNI.

There was a long line at her new bank. And when she reached the front of the line, although she was not fined for her late loan payment, she only was given a simple payment receipt.

"I was surprised. The receipt was not like the one I was used to receiving when paying my debt. There were no details of the remaining debt. The receipt was just like one you receive when making a savings deposit," Fiolita said.

"How can I feel reassured or calm down. How can I prove that I have paid my loan with such a receipt," she added.

That was not the end of her worries.

A Bank BNI official said that the bank was "temporarily" appointed to handle Bank Papan's former customers and another bank eventually would handle Fiolita's debt payments.

"And as of today, there's no guarantee that we'll get our documents as promised, and no information on what bank will take care of us," Fiolita said. "We need to be certain about this. Until then, we won't stop worrying."

The government closed 38 banks on March 13 in a bid to clean up the country's banking sector.

When it announced the closures, the government said it would guarantee people's deposits, savings accounts and other accounts.

Bank BNI is among five banks appointed by the government to handle customers of the closed banks. The other four banks are Bank Central Asia, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Dagang Negara and Bank Danamon.

Many customers have had unexpected experiences in this whole unusual process.

Utari, an accountant living in Depok, south of Jakarta, said she never suspected her bank would be closed, not until she was told by her parents two days after the announcement.

"I knew the government would close some banks. But I did not read any news hinting that my bank would be one of them," the former Bank Mashill Utama customer told the Post.

The first thing that came to her mind was not her savings account, which the government fully guaranteed, but her unpaid credit card bills at the bank.

She went to the bank's branch office in Margonda, Depok, to pay her credit card bill and transfer her money to a savings account in another bank. But when she arrived at the office, there were no bank employees there.

The next day, after taking the day off from her office, she went to Bank Mashill's office on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta, only to be told that she had to go to BCA to take care of the matter.

So, she went to BCA's branch office in Depok.

At BCA, Utari was told to get a verification letter from Bank Mashill in Jakarta.

The BCA official also told her that after getting the letter, she still had to wait because at that time BCA only was handling the deposits and accounts of Mashill's customers, not their unpaid bills.

"Why didn't anyone tell me in the first place that I should get a verification letter? It's weird," she said.

However, she did not give up.

The next day, she went back to Bank Mashill in Jakarta to get the letter. There, she was told the closed bank only was giving verification letters to customers wishing to transfer or withdraw their deposits or saving accounts, not those wishing to pay their credit card bills. However, she could not withdraw her money because she had not paid her bill.

"I was really upset. I wanted to get my money and pay my bills, so why was I being treated like that," Utari asked.

She called the bank's office almost every day to find out whether she could get a verification letter. But she was simply told to wait.

"I don't want to be charged for late payment," Utari said of her efforts. According to her, customers are charged up to 4 percent of their debt anytime they fail to pay their credit card bill on time.

And it was not until March 30 that she finally got her verification letter.

"Finally, I got it, after sweating and wasting my energy ... surprisingly, it took me less than an hour to pay all my bills -- without any late charges -- and transfer my money to my savings account in BNI," said Utari.

"But after having all of these experiences, I swear I will never put my money in a private bank again. You never know ... what will happen," she added. Apparently she based her reasoning on the fact that the government allowed state banks to continue operating even though they are not much better off than some of the private banks which were closed.