When I was a student, I have 4 bank accounts. Originally I have a Maybank account, that was my primary and only account since I was 6, I think. In school, I got a scholarship after my dad retired, so I had to open a BSN account. This is good, as KPM Matriculation also used BSN to give out their semi-annual scholarship.
During this time, I opened an ASB account, so I could keep my savings in a hard-to-withdraw account. My sister, deposited money for me, for my savings. How grateful I am, since this had saved both of us later.
When I went to University, I applied and got PTPTN loan, thus had to open a BBCB account.
If you’re keeping tab, I already have 3 bank accounts and an ASB account. This is both good and bad for me.
The good thing is, I could spread out my money and limit my spending in the process. Living in a boring (Cik PMS yang cakap) Labuan helps, nevertheless.
Everytime my loan got deposited into my BBCB account, I would spread the money (what’s left of it after paying my study fees.) RM500 into ASB, RM700 into Maybank, RM500 into BBCB and 300 into BSN. As you can see, Maybank is my primary account, BBCB is my secondary, and BSN as a backup. ASB acts as a worse-come-to-worse-cum-savings choice (both for me and my sister, it seems).
I would love to spread my salary in the same fashion. But it would be hard to be done in the multiple-bank-account style. And doing my monthly budget, I came out with an idea.
What if, there’s a bank account, that can be segmented, or contain sub-accounts? What if, there’s a bank account, that enables the customer to customize the accounts; subdividing into smaller accounts, setting preferences, setting limitations, and a whole lot more, anytime you please?
Think of it like the hard disk of our computer, only more customisable.
The idea is, to have an account, that can be segmented into smaller sub-accounts, and may have several profiles attached to them. These sub-accounts are optional, and done by the customer. If the customer prefer the one-big-account-for-all style, then don’t create any sub-accounts.
Imagine you have an account with RM1000 in it. You have 4 sub-accounts for savings, emergencies, petrol expenses, and daily expenses. From the RM1000, you distribute it into 200, RM100, RM200 and RM500 respectively.
To add more control over the account and yourself, you set the savings account only to be allowed over the counter (OTC) withdrawal, or limited ATM withdrawal, similar to what Maybank is doing. This would make you think twice, even more, when trying to withdrawing from that sub-account.
When withdrawing from the ATM, one is given a choice of sub-accounts to withdraw for. Similarly, certain account(s) can be associated to MEPS Cash, or similar services such as an e-Wallet. This will make certain you don’t touch the money you saved for your son’s college fund, for instance.
Now, I know this won’t be possible without some big, big modifications, especially on the database. The database must be flexible enough for users to add and remove sub accounts on their own, but robust enough to ensure everybody’s money is safe. Not to mention the modifications in ATM systems, and the whole bank account system.
That’s the main reason why many bank could not afford to change their system, not because of the cost to install, but the cost in case something goes wrong. Even our own homegrown Maybank have BILLIONS of accounts and customers (according to a trustworthy source), what would be of bigger international banks?
But, wouldn’t it nice, if we have more control over our own accounts, to mix and match, and not just to be able to select from pre-packaged …err… packages. This has already be the motto of Celcom, although Celcom users still need to rely on predetermined plans. Fast foods like Burger King and McDonalds have done it in their menus, while KFC just put a little bit of everything in one bucket.
It’s just an idea, for now. Anybody think this is possible? Or is it otherwise? What are the odds?
Comments
8 responses to “Customize Your Bank Account”
i am by no means an expert in this finance/banking issue but i can see that ur point is quite ambitious. and yes, i agree.. it would be nice if we could do so.
back home i also have 4 acc: BSN, THaji, Maybank, ASW 2020. all serves different purposes.
nway, here in OZ (im not sure if it has been done in Msia), u can have different kinds of account under one name, albeit ‘pre-packaged’. so yeah, not really a sub-account.
but u can manage all acc simultaneously at ATM/online.. and u can choose which acc to draw ur money from wen using EFTPOS (it’s similar to e-Wallet, i assume).
i have 2 acc: 1 saving (ironic coz this is for everyday transaction matters but thats how they call it) & another for real saving. most banks have special requirement for the real saving acc e.g. u cant withdraw ur money OTC/ATM (transfer to saving first, must do it online) or u’d get bonus if u dun withdraw for few consequtive months, or u can withdraw only once/month lest u’d be charged etc.
the only downside here u have to pay heaps to the bank (e.g. monthly fee even to have an acc there!) but since i’m a tertiary student, i dun have to pay anything. another thing i like about the banks here: they are very student-friendly.
aiyo.. bnyk giler bebel. not really sure how it related to ur entry but just giving u an overview about wuts happening here.
wow. panjangnya komen orang atas.
he he.
tapikan lizzam.. ada account bebanyak pun, kalau takde moolah nak diisi ke dalamnya, nak wat pe.
ek?
(cakap pasal diri sendiri..huwaaaa)
Eh? kan itu gunanya perbezaan antara savings account dan akaun semasa. Utk partition2 lar kan? since both savings and semasa akaun sits under the same user.
Besides, u can easily opts for saving for primary account, semasa account for perbelanjaan harian, special bank bond for long-term savings. There, u got 3 account under same name/user/bank. kira partition kan?
Oh yer.. aku pun multiple account, 1 ASB, 1 BSN, 2 BBCB. Yes, 2 BBCB account… people at BBCB mess-up and i have to make 2 account.. then they say its my fault that i try to open 2 account…. sigh…
intan : I see, although that is almost what I have in mind, but near enough. Maybe that would suffice for most usage.
but monthly fee?That’s almost proposterous. Suddenly I’m feeling lucky Maybank only charge for 5th atm withdrawal only, and OTC deposits..
cik PMS : haha…betul tu..i blame the single account structure since we cannot differentiate between savings and money to be spent, unless there’s another account.
Kaz : of all people, I think you would understand the HDD analogy best.Having a savings acc and a current account, is like having 2 HDD in a single PC, while my idea was to have a single account, with segregations, like a single HDD with multiple partitions.
in the savings-current account setup, It’s a fixed setup, and you have to treat them like 2 seperate accounts. consider this: you can add another segment, and put some money from other segments into it by online. can you do it by savings-current account setup?
I’m totally against anything that makes money-spending easier.
Regards;
Nella Shuhaime
-official representative for Shoppaholics-On-The-Mend
hmmm.. like what we had discussed before, your idea is ideal but may be not so feasible from bank’s POV.
the reason being, customers’ data base are voluminous and transaction OTC will be messy and costly. there are some other reasons why i said it may be not feasible.. operation wise & maintenance wise…
then again, even if banks are willing to spend on that project, segmentation of account, for me it still depends on each individual.. we have the control over our money.. that’s the fact… no matter how many segments of account we want, the total control is in our hand… end up we are the one who decide what the money we spent for.. no matter u withdraw it from whichever account, we can still use it for other purposes… so segmentation doesnt fit the purposes in the real life actually…
anyways.. i hope that banks can come out with that idea in the future.. 🙂
i demand an update !!
lamb : okay then. deposit all your money into my ASB account. I’ll make sure you won’t splurge again…
wlady : well, although it’s true that us customer is acctualy responsible in keeping our money in the savings, but it is nice to have such options for those who can (or can’t) control their spending
cik PMS : Updated! And I demand at least 3 things about me from you!