Monday, January 09, 2006

Banking woes

It seems a lot of people did not get their salaries this month because the banks have been closed for about a week or so, between New Year's, Sheikh Maktoum's passing, and the Eid al Adha holidays.

What upset me the most was this quote in 6Days today:

One bank official said last night that there was nothing stopping people withdrawing cash from ATM machines, but said that people whose salaries had not yet been paid into their accounts “should always plan for emergencies.”

Too bad they did not publish that idiot's name. Who is he to tell people to plan for emergencies? Has he ever thought about how the security guard who works in his building, who makes 800 dhs a month, who sends 600 of those dirhams to sustain his family back home, and who lives off 200 dhs for everything from food, to transportation, to clothing, to housing is supposed to plan for emergencies? Or how the poor laborers who are barely able to make ends meet are supposed to plan for emergencies?

Here's another thing that upset me: it seems some banks hold some payrolls for a day or two, invest them into some funds, and make a couple of days' worth of interest before depositing them in the accounts of the employees. So, say my salary gets transferred to the bank on the 1st of December for example, the bank holds it for 2 days, and only deposits my salary into my account on the 3rd of December. Meanwhile, the bank has profited by generating interest in those two days.

I don't know how prevalent this illegal practice is, but something should be done about this. The 2 days delay don't really affect me, but why should banks profit from something that's not really theirs?

4 comments:

moryarti said...

retail banking here is a joke - plain and simple

nzm said...

The banks holding onto the funds for a few days before depositing them into the accounts is common practise all over the world.

I'm not saying that I like it - just that it happens.

It annoys the sh*t out of me that my NZ bank will immediately deduct a requested credit card payment out of my savings account - but it won't show in my credit card account until a few days later.

At least in my Dubai account, the transaction immediately shows up in both my savings and my credit card accounts - all I have to worry about is all those charges showing in my credit card account that aren't attributed to a shop name - they just have a reference number. And then they just mysteriously disappear again - just as I'm about to write a snotty letter to the bank to ask them what these charges are for!

Dubai Sunshine said...

nzm...I thought that banks were not allowed to do that! Do banks do it illegaly or is this something they are actually allowed to do?

And I don't know about you, but some charges on my Visa Electron card here do not show up on my banks statement until a few days after the transaction...This was also the case when I lived in Canada. I think it all depends on how fast the retailers process the transactions...but again, I am not sure.

nzm said...

I don't know if it's illegal or not - but it appears to happen quite often.

Yes - same with my credit card - some transactions show straight away, and others don't. It does appear to be affected by the retailer in most instances.

I know that when I worked in a restaurant back in NZ, we used to total off the electronic credit card machine each night to get a summary of the day's transactions, as well as to zero the balance showing on the machine.

I don't know if this affects the transaction times or not - but it might.

It also might have something to do with the way in which the credit card companies process the charges too.

Who knows for sure? I guess the banks, but they'll never tell! :-)

cheers
nzm