Poor experience on remote bank account opening in HK (2)
Few days ago, I found I cannot register the Internet banking profile for my newly created saving account from a top tier bank in HK. Their call center officers told me it may related to my “existing” profile which created few years ago, and they cannot help on the call which I have to visit to branch.
Well, not everything can do online, at least for this bank…
I visited to the branch in the next day. The branch officer told me the same reason that I have a profile already, I have to make a face-to-face request to remove that profile before I can register one.
It sounds very interesting, I got an Internet banking account already, but I cannot use it. The branch officer did not know the reason as well, IT and the system were blamed.
“Maybe the system has some issue…”
“Maybe the system cannot support…”
Anyway, the officer told me that he has handled similar case before, he tried to update the account information for the customer instead of removing and recreating but failed, therefore it is suggested to register a new one after cancelled the old one.
Oh, I am not the first one and I will not be the last one.
The officer helped me to submit the request to cancel the Internet banking profile, he told me it would need to take 3 working days and I will not be acknowledged, just to try register after 3 working days.
The only thing I can do is to wait, then I asked the officer why the Internet banking profile is kept after I cancelled my credit card and I do not use any services from this bank.
“… if you just asked to cancel the credit card, then we will help to cancel the card only, therefore I think you need to request us to cancel your Internet banking profile as well in the future if you really want, otherwise the profile will be kept…”
I began to worry about the personal information, how long will this bank keep the customer information, if the customer does not use any services from the bank but has not requested to cancel the Internet banking profile. I asked the officer for such case, will the bank keep the customer information forever as long as the bank thinks the customer still owns an Internet banking profile, he / she is still the customer of the bank.
“Maybe, but I am not sure…” and he tried to explain that customer cannot view the account information in the mobile app because the saving or credit card account has been closed.
Anyway, I left the branch and prepare to wait for 3 working days…
But I received an SMS message to tell me the profile has been cancelled yesterday. It was really unexpected as I went to the branch in Friday afternoon and the text message sent in Saturday evening.
I try to register the Internet banking at night but it still telling me I already owned one. Maybe I have to wait the night batch to update the latest information.
Finally, I successfully to register the Internet banking account and register FPS today noon. I have also visit to ATM to change my ATM PIN successfully.
You think this is the end of the journal?
NO. It is not the end of my story.
I can transfer in via FPS but I cannot transfer out as I got warning that I still need to wait for the identity verification.
I don’t know what and why I have to wait, and I am not happy with customer journal. It is time consuming. After applied on the mobile app, customer need to wait for the ATM card, and the customer need to wait for the ATM PIN after activated the card. Customer will use the card number and AMT PIN to register the Internet banking. After login Internet banking, customer may need to wait for some time on identity verification in order to transfer out.
It is also not transparent to the customer what is happening and what is the customer waiting for. After I have applied the application on mobile app, I just got a welcome kit email after few days, the email is a general information to introduce what can the customer enjoys with the account. It has not clearly mention that my application is successfully, and the ATM card is on the way. And now, I have activated the ATM card and the Internet banking account, I even can transfer in to the saving account but I still need to wait for some identity verification? What if the verification failed, they would close my account? What identity need to be verified now?
Anyway, all I know is I have to wait, maybe I am waiting for a night batch to run or maybe it is true that I have to wait 3 working days as the branch officer told me…