You would normally choose wire-transfer but what if you prefer check (ignore the issue of why you want to choose the snail-slow check approach at the first place)? Supposing your check was being issue by Citibank (NYSE : C) New York (maybe due to the global presence, your trading account with most brokerages in U.S. somehow ended up with Citibank) – once you received it, you might want to know which banks in Malaysia charge you the cheapest fees so that you can maximize the value from the check.
Once, I tried to shop around with some banks in Malaysia – the first one I approached was Hong Leong Bank (KLSE : HLBANK, stock-code 5819). I’ve to say the customer service sucks big-time (extremely slow and rude), not to mention almost none of the bank officers know what to do when I ask the clearing-charges for an oversea check from Citibank New York. The officers somehow have little or no experience with such scenario – they were searching for old files filled with dust trying their luck to find if there’re historical transaction sample, while I was waiting for the answer. In the end, the officer just gives me a figure which I think was plucked from the sky – it is RM 10.00 (the actual figure is much higher, I believe).
The second bank I tried was Public Bank (KLSE : PBBANK, stock-code 1295), the customer service is much better than Hong Leong Bank but when come to the process of clearing overseas check, the officer still need to make some calls to get clarification but at least they serve with a smile. The processing charges – RM 25.15 (RM 20 for commission, RM 5.00 for postage and RM 0.15 for stamp-duty).
January 8th, 2007 by financetwitter
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