Inefficiency in Efficient Singapore

Whenever I have foreign colleagues relocating to Singapore, I will tell them that despite Singapore being an efficient country, there are 3 industries that are very inefficient - the Government, the banks and the telcos. Not the online services, but when the online services failed and one is required to physically turn up at the branch/ shop/ agency, one can start to roll eyes.

Bcos we live in such an efficient economy, any inefficiencies is hard to tolerate and irk us extra. I unfortunately had to encounter one. 

Daddy Lim and I have a joint bank account since years back. For some reason, the (only) atm card and online banking are under his name. While all the banks had turned to digital token, this bank is on physical token. I think it is only recently that I saw on the website, requesting users to register for the digital token. 

I have been the one accessing the online banking for the account. Daddy Lim has zero idea on what is the login and password. I know that the physical token will run out of battery and to get a new token, one has to visit the branch. I have tried to register for the digital token, only for the website to prompt that my mobile number is not registered. 

This bank account is rarely used. If it is not bcos the physical token has prompted low batt, I would have procrastinated somemore. I called the holine, only to be told that I needed an atm card in order to register for the digital token. The atm card (under Daddy Lim's name) is probably tucked somewhere in the house and we cant find it (for now). As such, he too, is unable to register for the digital token. Zzzzzz. We needed to do something or risk unable to access the account when the physical token finally died. 

We headed down to the branch this afternoon. We were told that we needed to make new atm cards and I would finally be able to get my own ibanking. However, a counter staff has to assist us and the Q (18 pax in front of us) is a 1.5 to 2 hours wait. What??!! 

What choices do we have? Luckily, we have plenty of errands to run, including having to send a snail mail. Who still does snail mail now? The last I bought a stamp for local postage, it was 22 cents. Now, it cost 51 cents. That is like a 100% increase. 

We eventually got the bank stuff done and that was really a 2 hour wait in q. Goodbye to physical tokens. 

I hope I don't have to go down to any of the physical shop/ branch/ agency anytime soon again.

Mummy Lim