Malaysian bank accounts

Here in Malaysia, I've got bank accounts with three(!) different banks.

(Now before you say I'm rich, I should warn you that my balances usually don't breach more than two digits!)

My accounts with these three banks were opened mainly due to external reasons - my sponsors would want a specific bank, or one bank's online facility was the most popular, etc.

So once I returned home, I reactivated all my (dormant) bank accounts and had a little play around with they all had to offer.

Maybank

When I opened my account here, Maybank2u was the leading online banking facility in Malaysia. Lots of online retail websites preferred Maybank2u transfers, so I signed up.

To sign up for an online account, you have to head to the nearest Maybank ATM and setup an online banking PIN and register your mobile phone number. Once you've chosen your PIN, you'll then do a "First Time Login" where you'll need the PIN to successfully register your online credentials. Interestingly, the first time login involves sitting through a short video on online banking safety - "Don't click on bad links! Don't key in your password into dodgy sites!" - and then has a mini quiz at the end to see if you had paid attention or not :P

Logging in involves typing in a password after seeing a secure picture, which you would have chosen during the initial online credentials setup. The idea is that if you try to login and you don't see your chosen picture, then it's a phishing site which you should avoid.

Once logged in, you can do the usual balance inquiries and the like. However, to do a transfer, or to buy things online, you'll need a Transfer Authorization Code (TAC) before your transaction goes through. This TAC is typically 6-digits long and it'll be sent to your mobile phone at the time of request. Once you receive your TAC, you key it in online then your transaction goes through.

The annoying thing which I hadn't realized about Maybank2u is that if you don't login over 6 months, then your online credentials get deactivated. You then have to go to a bank branch and get your Maybank2u credentials wiped from your account, and then you have to redo the whole activation process again!

CIMB

CIMB was my old sponsor's preferred bank, so I opened it way back during my A-Levels. Since then, it's been left dormant, but now that I've reactivated it, there's been a lot of improvements especially in terms of online banking.

CIMBClicks also does just about the same things as Maybank2u, with the addition of a somewhat cute octopus mascot.

Octo!

Its first time login also requires an ATM-derived initial PIN, and similar to Maybank2u, transactions also require TACs sent to a mobile phone, although other alternative mediums are also available. You could opt for a "TAC via device" which is similar to HSBC UK's SecureKey system, where you get this mini calculator-like device which spouts out random numbers. However, this isn't free, so you'll need to shell out a substantial amount of money for it. The login process itself involves a secure word rather than a picture, but the premise remains similar to Maybank2u's: choose your own secure word, and if you don't see it when you're logging in, it's a phishing site.

I've only had this online banking service for about a month, but I've successfully got myself locked out of the system - apparently I had entered the wrong TAC more than a set amount of times, so I now have to call them up or go to a branch to get this fixed. Grr.

Bank Islam

Again, this was a preferred bank by a sponsor, so I signed up ages ago. When I went to reactivate my account recently, I found out that my account had been cancelled(!) so I had to re-register for a new one. When I asked about online banking, the guy misheard me and thought I wanted to setup mobile banking on my phone, so he proceeded to ask for my phone and stuck this mystery film on top of my SIM card. Apparently this was safer than installing a mobile app on my phone(?) because none of my data was being stored on the phone itself, or so he says. I just smiled and nodded.

So I don't have an online banking service with Bank Islam, but the mobile service is quite neat. It basically uses the SIM Toolkit app, and once I key in two types of passcodes, the transactions get carried out via SMS. So if I wanted to check my balance, I'll get an SMS that tells me how much money I (don't) have.

The problem with SMS is that 1) if I don't have enough credit on my phone, then it won't work, and 2) SMS servers may not be the safest places to route banking data through. However, I do find it quicker to check balances using the mobile app compared to logging into online banking.

So there you have it - my roundup of Malaysian online and phone banking. It would be nice to have a little bit more money so I can actually use more of the features they've got..

Driving Day 1

I had my first two hours of driving today..

My instructor made me drive on the roads within the first hour.

O_O

I SURVIVED!

I'M STILL ALIVE!

My car stalled a million times, on the roads, whilst parking and during hill stops. Got honked at by the other motorists when I stalled. Thanks, people..

BUT I'M NOT DEAD!

Woo \o/

Supertrees Skywalk

Went to Singapore's newest attraction, Gardens by the Bay. The whole thing is basically a massive patch of gardens built on top of reclaimed land.

Massive botanic garden meets Gattaca.

The place was huge, and since it was really hot and humid, I decided to visit just the supertrees then head back.

Skywalk!

These supertrees were TALL. They had plants running all across the columns, and there was some high-tech wizardry about the supertrees and electricity or something, but it was getting too hot for me to remember things.

Giant trees! Tiny humans!

For the cost of SGD 5 per person, you could walk along the skywalk. Not recommended for those afraid of heights, IMHO.. The suspended bridge had this mesh flooring, but for some reason a big swab of the floor had these grills which you can see through all the way down to the ground!

Yikes! Not for the faint-hearted..

As soon as I got down, I made a beeline to the cool air-conditioned food court and got myself some iced tea. The restaurant I went to had these really cool menus in the form of newspapers!

What's in the news today? Tea and coffee :D

I really like Singapore. Despite inducing heat strokes in me.

NEWater: toilet to tap..

People looked at me strange when they asked, "So what do you wanna see in Singapore?"

"Their water treatment plant!"

o_O

As luck would have it, the NEWater Visitor Centre is quite close to where my brother lives, so I decided to get off the beaten track and paid a visit. So I caught the free shuttle bus from the Tanah Merah MRT station - I was the only one there :P

Once I got there, I realized that I was joining two groups of kids: a group of secondary schoolboys and a group of preschoolers. FML. Took me awhile to get past the embarrassment of being the oldest only tourist who voluntarily signed up to the tour..

The main reason why I wanted to come was because of the existing 99-year contract between Malaysia and Singapore over water. Back in 1962, a deal was drawn to ensure that the small island of Singapore would always have enough water. Johor, the Malaysian state neighbouring Singapore, would supply raw water to Singapore at the price of MYR0.03 per 1000 gallons, whilst Singapore would treat the water and sell some of the treated water back to Malaysia for MYR0.50 per 1000 gallons.

Obviously this was a lopsided agreement, but I suppose the rulers of Johor were feeling magnanimous over the tiny island. But now that the tiny island has leapfrogged Malaysia in all aspects, it's only natural for Malaysia to bite back.

So in 2002, Malaysia wanted to set a higher price for its water - MYR6.40 per 1000 gallons. Singapore said no, so ended negotiations and have since worked aggressively towards self-sufficiency.

Enter NEWater. It's "toilet-to-tap" water solution. Basically NEWater is reclaimed waste water that has been purified through various processes, and then fed back into reservoirs before going back into household taps!

The kids in my tour group collectively went "EWWW!" at the sight of their then-PM drinking NEWater.

So yeah, I went to the visitor centre expecting fireworks along the lines of "Down with Malaysia!" but I was instead served with lots of water conservation propaganda exhibits. The tour guide herself was quite good and she knew her stuff. She explained all the different processes involved, from filtering to reverse osmosis to UV disinfection. It was all very informative, just not as controversial as I would've liked :P

The only mention of Malaysia was when she explained the four sources of Singapore's water - one of which was by importing water from Johor, Malaysia. That was it. One simple sentence. Then she swiftly moved on to how Singapore's other three sources are all homegrown and that we should all conserve water because it's important to us and our future generations..

She also mentioned that by 2060, nearly 40% of Singapore's water will be NEWater. What she didn't mention was that the 1962 Malaysia-Singapore agreement would expire right about then as well..

So yeah, I felt like they sidestepped a lot of the hard-hitting issues, but considering the preschool audience, I suppose that's understandable. The Visitor Centre itself had a couple of kid-friendly rides(!) more akin to amusement centres, so I don't think political intrigue would be appropriate.