Public Bank's ATM services suck real big time

Public bank. Hrrmpp! Public Bank. They may be among the tops in over-the-counter customer service but when it comes to providing ATM services to their customers, Public Bank's ATMs ain't exactly user-friendly.

In fact, apart from their reluctance to instal off-site ATMs in shopping malls and hence forcing their account holders to pay RM1 to use ATMs from other banks, Public Bank's own in-branch machines are among the most exasperating to use, especially when you are using their funds transfer option to move money between your own bank accounts.

I'll tell you what happened just the other day. I have one of their ATM cards and I have both my personal individual current and savings accounts tagged to the card for convenience.

This way, should I ever need to transfer funds internally between my two accounts, it should be a very simple and logical flow of choosing the "From" and "To" account numbers that appear on the ATM screen, right? That's my general experience at banks' ATMs....most banks, that is, except Public Bank's.

(Or course, I can also make my internal funds transfers through the Internet, which I actually do most of the time, but there are also occasions when I'm already out of the house and the ATM becomes the more convenient alternative.)

Now at the Public Bank ATM, the "To" account number is never displayed. Instead, you are asked to select the "Your Other Account Linked To This Card."

So naturally, I selected this screen option. But what do you know? The moment I pressed the option, the next screen asked me to key in the account number!

Since I already have my "From" and "To" account numbers tagged to the ATM card, why can't the Public Bank system just recognise them as belonging to me? Why ask me to key in a long string of numbers when in all probability, I do not write down for obvious security reasons?

What sort of madness is this?

Why? Why can't I just transfer from SA to CA or from CA to SA when they are both my personal individual accounts and they are tagged in the same ATM card??


Why on earth does Public Bank make it so difficult and inconvenient? To me, this is totally unacceptable and there is no satisfactory explanation from their branch staff.

Public Bank: your ATM services suck!