Bank Accountability

[Possum]

Yesterday my wife was for some reason looking at her peso savings account book and noticed that in July 2023 164,000 peso was withdrawn.  After calming down she asked if I had taken any money out but I never use that account. We looked for online bank statements but the highly touted Metrobank online system only allows access to the previous month, no history available. Off to the bank we went. They looked back and said that the 164,000 was a combination of several withdrawals over the last 10 months. We asked by who. They said it was online. We then asked online to who? They have no record of to who as that has to be investigated. We filled out a complaint form and requested an investigation but the manager warned that it could take a very long time to hear anything. So next step is a complaint to BSP. The lack of history available to the account holder and there being no record keeping available to the customer of where online money movements go is a recipe for fraud. We will be printing out our monthly statements each month before they disappear from now on and only maintaining the minimum in our bank accounts here.

[earthdome]

Wow. Over $2500 USD withdrawn online with no record and no notice to you? We use BPI and receive both text and email messages for online transactions at the time they occur. Something fishy is going on. Hope the bank can track it down. We only keep what cash we need for the next month or so in our account.

[usa32]

1 hour ago, Possum said:

Yesterday my wife was for some reason looking at her peso savings account book and noticed that in July 2023 164,000 peso was withdrawn.  After calming down she asked if I had taken any money out but I never use that account. We looked for online bank statements but the highly touted Metrobank online system only allows access to the previous month, no history available. Off to the bank we went. They looked back and said that the 164,000 was a combination of several withdrawals over the last 10 months. We asked by who. They said it was online. We then asked online to who? They have no record of to who as that has to be investigated. We filled out a complaint form and requested an investigation but the manager warned that it could take a very long time to hear anything. So next step is a complaint to BSP. The lack of history available to the account holder and there being no record keeping available to the customer of where online money movements go is a recipe for fraud. We will be printing out our monthly statements each month before they disappear from now on and only maintaining the minimum in our bank accounts here.

And they want some retirement visa holders to deposit and leave to 10 to 20k US dollars in a Philippine bank account. This is why no one with a heartbeat would do that. Ridiculous in this day and time, that this information isn't readily available online

[Snowy79]

I had a run in with the HSBC here. They had washed their hands with accepting responsibility over 36k pesos that had gone missing. A quick threat of escalation to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas highlighting the HSBC has a thief operating inside their bank and they had refused to investigate and my money suddenly appeared. 

[craftbeerlover]

3 hours ago, Possum said:

peso savings account book and noticed that in July 2023 164,000 peso was withdrawn. 

I may be reaching here, but if it was in her passbook, then she or somebody must have brought the passbook to the bank for an update.   Would be hard for online withdrawals to be updated/annotated on a passbook without going to the bank.  I am sure I am missing something.

[Possum]

Just now, craftbeerlover said:

I may be reaching here, but if it was in her passbook, then she or somebody must have brought the passbook to the bank for an update.   Would be hard for online withdrawals to be updated/annotated on a passbook without going to the bank.  I am sure I am missing something.

What you're missing is she didn't get her passbook updated for 9-10 months. When it was updated they showed a withdrawal of 164000. Then when questioned they said they had simply totaled 9-10 months of withdrawals and said it was 164,000. They did not list the individual withdrawals which comprised this total or the dates they occurred  when updating her passbook. When questioned today they showed us the individual withdrawals in their computer bank records but they could not tell us who the money went to. All they could say is they were done online. They did not know to where as their records don't show that. I asked her why she hadn't caught this before and she said she usually updates 4 accounts when she goes and doesn't look closely because the account in question is rarely used and she thought her money was safe in a bank. She said,"I forgot for a day this is the f**kin Philippines.

Now these may be legitimate online purchases that both of us have forgotten about but we doubt it and since the bank keeps no readily available records of who the money goes to when they transfer it online it's hard to know and very suspect. The fact that they cannot tell us who they transfer money to from our account if done online is reason enough to not trust the system.

Edited Wednesday at 04:20 PM by Possum

[Imaginos]

3 hours ago, Possum said:

When it was updated they showed a withdrawal of 164000. Then when questioned they said they had simply totaled 9-10 months of withdrawals and said it was 164,000.

That's not how it works. Every individual deposit/withdrawal should be in the bank book, regardless of when it was updated. 

 

Time to change banks.

[Old55]

Hope you are able to quickly reach a settlement Possum. 

Threatening to post on the banks FaceBook may be an option. But with the way the laws are you could be accused of slander. 

Would informing the bank manager you may involve the police be of any use? Perhaps you would have a good laugh. 

Edited Wednesday at 08:35 PM by Old55

[BrettGC]

Seems very odd to me.  After reading this I checked our accounts with Landbank and Union.  Union you can't see the history in the phone app further back than about a month but on the PC you can. With Landbank the full history is there on both via a pulldown menu with different timeframes. 

[craftbeerlover]

7 hours ago, Possum said:

What you're missing is she didn't get her passbook updated for 9-10 months. When it was updated they showed a withdrawal of 164000.

Fair enough, however, you did state, "Yesterday my wife was for some reason looking at her peso savings account book and noticed that in July 2023 164,000 peso was withdrawn"   9 months from July 2023 is March 2024.... I am probably being an ass here, but if the passbook was updated 7 months ago, why wasnt something of this magnitude looked at and addressed immediately, on the spot?  I am sure it happens, but I cant imagine (me personally) getting my passbook updated and then not looking at it.