Banking in Malaysia- “Introducers” and “Chips”

Banking in Malaysia can be described in 1 word: adventurous. I use a positive word because if I didn’t, than I may just put myself in an angry mood for a while as I type so instead I will say, it’s an adventure. I am sure, like many other expats, that we are not the only ones to experience what I am about to write about, so I know I am in good company, plus I would like to make the “newbie” expats aware of some pitfalls that you may encounter.

Banking can either make or break you, regardless of what country you live in. Its one of those “necessary evils” that we all endure. The 2 most annoying aspects of banking in Malaysia are: “You need an introducer, la” and “no chip, la”.

These are two phrases I have learned to despise (I will not use the word hate because my mom taught me never to use it, but if I could, I would)! Like many expats (but not all), my husband’s company will not direct deposit his paycheck into a foreign banking account. So, we have the paychecks deposited into our American checking account, and from there, I withdrawal whatever amount I need throughout that particular month and deposit into our local Malaysian banking account. Seems simple enough right? WRONG.

First of all, about 95% of all banks in the USA charge a foreign transaction fee, both for withdrawals at ATMs as well as credit card transactions. Luckily, we did our research and found a bank that does not charge any ATM fees and at the end of every month reimburses any external ATM fees- pretty awesome. In conjunction with that, the credit card we use also does not charge any foreign transaction fees and we get awesome airline miles to help with our flights around the world,  so it’s a win win as far as that goes.

The hiccups come when trying to access and use your money here in Malaysia. We quickly realized that relying solely on our USA bank account was not going to work. Malaysia offers services where you can pay just about any and all utility bills via the country’s scattered post offices via cash, but that is such a hassle because you need to withdraw the amount from your USA account and then take the cash into the post office to pay, and many times the total amount will be over the max daily withdrawal limit that your bank has in place to protect you. So you are wasting a ton of time running around with large sums of cash on you (also not a good idea at all due to the pick pocketers and purse snatchers) in order to pay your bills, which will take you several days to complete.

So off we went to open a local Malaysian bank account, choosing the popular Maybank company and here is where we heard for the first time, the dreadful words which haunted us for weeks until we found a way to get around it. After compiling all the passport, marriage, & other information and waiting about 45 min for a banking agent to help us, we sat down across from her to explain our need and her answer was a quick “You need an Introducer, la”. I’m sorry, a what?   

You see, banks in Malaysia require that you find someone who has banked with that particular bank (that you trying to open an account with) for at least 1 year, and they need to bring you into the bank and “introduce you” to the bank. This makes zero sense to me. I have money, I want to put it in your bank, how hard is that? But no, the bank wants you to have this “introducer” be the “go-between”. After tons of questions and inquiries, we found out why. The “introducer” is the person who is supposed to explain the banking ins & outs to you…..questions such as online banking, withdrawals, deposits, etc. Isn’t that what the bank employees are for?! So random. But, nonetheless, we got ourselves an “introducer” and opened a joint checking account. And wouldn’t you know…..we figured out the online banking, amongst other questions, just fine on our own thank you very much! Just don’t get me started on transferring funds, repaying loans, ongoing auto-debits, & TAC codes to make a payment to a payee….those are whole new issues that doesn’t need to be talked about just yet or I may just scream.

Our second roadblock in Malaysia as been the nightmarish yet simple comment- “no chip, la”. The majority of credit cards in the USA (not debit cards, but true credit cards) are all basically the same, at least with MasterCard & Visa. They have the credit card number imprinted on the card with your name below as well as expiration date. Then there is a “swiping” bar on the back where you run the card through the machine. Simple enough, right? Well, not in Malaysia folks!

Malaysian credit cards, as well as many others throughout the world (including Australia and the UK), contain a “chip” as well as all the information listed above on the front of the card. Don’t ask me what that “chip” does that the rest of the card does not, but I will say that not having one is a royal pain in my arse! Instead of swiping the card, they insert it into the credit card machine and run your info that way. Either way, it accomplishes the same thing, and all credit card machines throughout Malaysia accept transactions both ways. Yet still its an issue for us not having one, oh about 15% of the time. That may not seem like a big deal, but when its your only mode of paying for big-ticket items, it will drive you batty.

Case in point: recently we were at Carrefour (similar to a Walmart) trying to buy a vacuum cleaner. We presented our card, and the nice Malaysian helping us would not swipe our card, because there was “no chip, la”. We told him we use it all the time, and have in fact even used it at this particular Carrefour multiple times, but still he would not budge. Finally get got a supervisor over to the counter and the supervisor looked at the card, swiped it, and we signed and went on our way. Easy peasy folks- it’s not brain surgery here!! That was about 20 minutes of my life I will never get back- ugh!

So as you can see, there are some banking hurdles to get over as well in Malaysia. We are rolling along smoothly with our Maybank checking account and we still deal with the whole “no chip, la” from time to time, but I’m learning how to manage my frustration over it better. I simply walk away from the transaction and buy my product elsewhere. Luckily, it doesn’t happen at the normal grocery stores, shopping boutiques, and restaurants we frequent so life is moving along just fine!

Happy banking worldwide friends~

Kimbra