Hassle to write many cheques

I bought a commercial property to be used as my office. The property is under development. I have to write two cheuqes for each progress payment. one cheque for the developer and another cheque for GST.

To make matters worse, the lawyer for the developer wanted the cheques to be made out in full, to "The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation account no XXX-YYYY-YYY for ABC Company Ltd". There is no space in the cheque to write this long name and the amount in words. It is so easy to make a mistake.

If I make a mistake, which is quite likely to happen, you can be sure that the bank will return the cheque and ask for a new cheque to be written. This will take time and hassle and give the bank, lawyers and the developers the opportuntity to charge a hefty interest on late payment and other charges for the mistake.

Why should our bankers and lawyers make life so difficult for consumers? Are they trying to find the excuse to levy more charges?

Why should the GST be written in a separate cheque? This is one more reason why I strongly dislike GST, as it is creating a lot of unnecessary work and burden.


Tan Kin Lian

Bonus on participating policyholders

During the past two years, many insurance companies had cut their bonus due to the global financial crisis. Although the investment markets had largely recoverd, these companies had still not restored their bonus. This has badly affected the policyholders whose policies had matured recently. They received payouts that are far less than what was originally projected, and less than what had actually been earned on their premiums.

I hope that the regulator (MAS) will look into this matter and ensure that policyholders of matured policies receive a fair payout, that reflect the investment return that has been earned on their premiums over the past years. The payout should not be reduced by the surplus that is retained in the insurance fund to fund the marketing expenses of the insurance companies, made at the expense of the maturing policyholders.

Tan Kin Lian

Prudential buys over AIA

Someone asked for my views about the impact to consumers, after Prudential buys over AIA. The policyholders should not be affected by the change of ownership. Their money is kept in a separate insurance fund. It does not matter who the owner is.

However, the change of management may affect the philosophy in the distribution of bonus. The new management may be more generous or less generous in distributing bonus to policyholders out of the surplus in the insurance fund, compared to the previous owners.

Tan Kin Lian

Hefty bank charges

Vincent Chan wrote to the Straits Times to complain about a hefty charge of $12 to pay for a budget air ticket of $50, using his credit card. I paid a bank charge of $75 to transfer $2,500 to a factory in China. My bank told me that if I pay late on my credit card, there is a fee of $50 in addition to the interest of 2% per month on the rollover.

It seems that the banks have gone overboard in levying exorbitant charges for essential banking services. The authority (MAS) sits on the side and allow them to charge what they like. The banks are able to make billions of dollars of profits from the interest spread and hefty charges. Are bank customers being fleeced?

Tan Kin Lian