OCBC Bank Customer Service

I always have a good impression of OCBC Bank, despite its small size (currently the smallest of the 3 local major banking institutions).

I started a personal account at OCBC Bank in the late 1990s as I wanted an alternative to the people's bank i.e. POSB as the line for the atm is always very long. At that time, there were plenty of OCBC atms around or at least in the area I frequented so that was good.

Slowly, the service seemed to deteriorate. First, you need to maintain a minimum of $1000 in your bank account to avoid the monthly service charge. I found out both POSB and UOB actually just require a minimum of $500. That made it useful if you just want an account for chequeing or bill payment purposes.

I hardly stepped into the branch or called the customer service hotline as I did not really have a need until recently.

OCBC Branch in a town area:
I waited for close to an hour just to be served by the customer service officer. There were 2 lines. One for commercial and one for personal account. Since I was there in work capacity, I waited at the commercial line. Somehow the line was wider and longer, obviously they were used to serving commercial banking matters, BUT there were only 3 tellers to serve the 2 lines.

So one teller was to process the personal banking matters, leaving 2 tellers for the commercial matters. I was wrong. The teller in the middle alternated between the commercial and personal banking customers. At one stage, the teller just served the personal banking customers.

I just did not understand the logic at all, particularly since there were more people waiting in line at the commercial side that day.

Review/Increase of Credit Limit
I called the hotline first to enquire about it as I realized I never updated my information at all. Can you believe they still have my old contact numbers and first job information in their system? That was from when I first opened my personal bank account. I was horrified. No wonder they can never get me on my mobile in all these years if they tried.

There was no form to fill in to request for a review or increase of credit limit on the website. The person from the call center (outsourced) just said to write a note/letter saying I want to increase/review my credit limit. And then they will do the rest.

This sounded highly improper, with no official form or documentation at all. So I hied myself off to the bank to check in person.

The customer service officer at the bank initially said they did have a form for that. So she searched high and low, and even went into the room to find it. But in the end, she had to admit they did not have an official form at all. Double horrors!

In any case, I gave her the copy of what I faxed over to the call center guy so that she could pass it on to someone else to process. And yes, I did get a review of my credit limit. But still, it was quite shocking to discover such an established and old reputable bank did not have basic forms in place at all.

Phone Banking Hotline:
Forget about calling the hotline on weekends, especially on Sundays. I tried twice and was holding for close to 30mins, just waiting for someone to speak with.

The first call went alright, despite the long waiting time. I was told someone would call me back within a week to update me of the outcome of my request.

A week went past and no one called me. So 10 days later after the 1st call, I called the hotline again. I was once again put on hold for the requisite 30mins before someone deigned it was time to speak to me.

The person could not help and said the case was still pending. The bank officer handling the case would call me back on Monday. Monday came and went. No calls.

So today I called the hotline. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself speaking to someone within a few minutes (hence my deduction of no one being around on weekends). Again, the person could not help me and said the officer would only be back at work on Wednesday (tomorrow) and the officer would give me a call to inform me of the final status.

I sure hope someone will call me tomorrow.

Now I understand why some people do not like OCBC at all. They should really send all their staff to improve on their customer service level. And that is probably why subconsciously I just hardly use their credit cards or facilities.

The two banks which I deal with most often are UOB and Citibank. Citibank is always a joy to work with. The customer service level has always been pretty consistent and they are very prompt in follow up.

UOB was iffy initially especially after they proudly hit their 1 million customers in credit card users. It would take forever (also around 30mins to 45mins) just to talk to someone when you call the hotline. But now it is a breeze. Then again, I am not sure if that is because I am using the number specially for the Solitaire cardmembers. In any case, I will be able to talk to someone within mins. It was the same for Citibank on the platinum hotline number (but for Citibank, it seemed like everyone holds a plat card anyway).

In any case, I never have to call the bank more than once to check on my request at all. Why do I get this feeling I will need to call the OCBC bank again on Thursday?