I tried to renew the road tax for my car today. I went to the bank branch in Taipan USJ during the lunch break. The traffic congestion was horrible, as usual.
1. Enter bank. Take a number. There were very few customers.
2. Approach counter as my number was called.
3. Whip out my insurance cover note and tell the lady that I want to renew the road tax for my car.
4. Lady tells me that I should go to the bank branch where my loan account is, which is the Shah Alam branch. What?!
5. Lady says that I can renew the road tax at the Taipan branch but it will take one week. What?! And they can't courier the road tax sticker to me. I have to go back to the bank to collect it. Huh?!
6. Lady says if I go to the Shah Alam branch on Wednesday morning, I can get the road tax sticker back by 2PM on the same day. I have to pay 10 bucks for a runner to go to JPJ to do the processing. What the?! If I renew from the Taipan branch, I have to pay another 10 bucks to courier the sticker back from the Shah Alam branch. *jaw drops, speechless*
7. Ask lady if I can also request for the vehicle registration card to be released to me. Lady says I have to go to the Shah Alam branch. And the bank retains it for the first two years, so I gotta wait another year. *breathe, stay cool, be patient*
8. Finally decide it's easier to go to the Shah Alam branch and get it done with in one day rather than wait one whole week for the bank to do it for me. Besides, my road tax already expired (that's another story), so I need to renew it like, yesterday. Uh-huh. So, yea, this whole debacle is partly my fault.
9. Make mental note to ask more questions if ever getting another loan from this bank. There's no fine print. You just gotta dig the information out of the bank officers, assuming they know the procedure in the first place, and assuming you know what to ask. The car salesman said this bank is good, because they approve the loans fast. Yeah, right. Fast approval, but tedious road tax renewal procedure.
10. Walk out of bank and go for lunch. Thank God my car loan is not with the bank branch in Ampang or Port Klang.
I don't get it. Tell me I'm naive, but...
Why does the bank keep my vehicle registration card? Are they afraid I'm going to run away with it? Or commit some fraud with it? Doesn't the bank trust me? Or do they not trust the JPJ?
If I had the registration card, I could have renewed the road tax by myself at the nearby post office within 15 minutes.
In this day and age, when the records and documents are digital and we have e-government and e-this and e-that, why do I still need to pay a runner to do something that I can do faster and cheaper? It's not like I'm going out of my way to renew the road tax. I can just do it while going for lunch.
Oh yeah, Happy New Year to all of you loyal readers, anonymous and known, near and far.
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9 comments:
Shouldn't this be titled "How to NOT renew your road tax in 10 steps"? :)
Bank just gave me mine when I asked for it. All I had to do was sign for it in a little book.
ailsa: I was being sarcastic. :P
rudi: OK, I'll ask again. Yours is probably a different bank.
All you need is a sweet smile and a tongue rolling with sweet complimentaries. Hahaha... But seriously, go back to the branch which you have gotten the loan from and ask for it. Any bank will accommodate.
I just went to the bank... and it's getting worse. The lady at the counter treated me like the Invisible Man even though there was only one other customer in the entire room. After a few minutes, she finally acknowledged my presence and asked me to sit down. I asked if they could release the registration card. Believe it or not, she said yes. So I filled a form, and got the card. But then she said it was so that I could go to renew the road tax myself. I would still have to return the card after renewing the road tax. I asked how long they want to keep the card. She said, until half the loan is paid!!! That's 3.5 years!!! I'm just gonna renew the road tax, keep the card, and wait for the bank to call me if they want the card back. BTW, it's Ambank.
hahahahaha... sorry.. hehe... Did you give her a really really sweet smile? Awww... cheer up. I am sure she was just suffering from hangover or had a late nite yesterday.
psst... tell you a secret... that's what I was told when I went to collect my registration card for my last car many many years ago... the registration card stayed with me till loan was fully settled =D No one called me to return it. Mine was PBB.
AMB... hmmm... NVM.. better not let you know too much trade secrets =D
There you go... please keep the document somewhere safe and please remember where you have put it as well, okay?
I always thought they keep the vehicle registration card in case you default on the loan. Don't they keep the house title too in the case of a mortgage?
lina: I wasn't really in the mood to smile sweetly. I was as polite as possible without causing any diabetes.
sunflower: In that case, they should keep the card until the loan is fully paid up. But they said they keep it until half the load is repaid. I don't know what difference that makes. I'm not sure about house titles. We need a lawyer or real estate agent to answer this. Hey, aren't you one, or both?
just follow the advice ... get the card and do not return it to the bank until the day you need to go to the bank to get them to stamp on your card that you have paid up your loan the car is yours!!
The bank will be too lazy to ask you for your registration card.
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