Dear Editor,
During the month of September 2009 which was also the Holy Month of Ramadaan I visited the New Building Society’s (NBS) branch in Rosignol (Region 5) in order to withdraw funds (to pay my zakaat; which is 2.5% of my financial assets) from several accounts I have there – these accounts are in the names of both my sons and myself.
After the necessary paperwork was prepared I presented my ID (GY passport) along with both my sons’ Canadian passports as per verification of account holder.
However, much to my displeasure the teller who was attending to me told me that I could not access my money because my passport had expired a month ago (a fact I was aware of). However, I am known personally to most of the staff and the branch manager who was on leave at the time so I knew that I could be identified even without an ID – Bank Policy or not. Even so, I had also presented my sons’ valid passports as well as all passbooks in our names; and the amount of money I was requesting was not a large sum (it was well within the five-digit margin) and it was for a worthy cause.
The question is I wonder how many more customers of this bank may have had this same or similar experience; what if someone had an emergency and needed the money at the very moment even if they had an expired ID. Isn’t an ID just a way of identifying the person presenting his/her ID for verification of documents being presented at the time even though the form of identification may have expired, or does it mean that the person has also expired?
I believe it was most unfair that I could not access at my convenience my money that I deposited in this institution for safe-keeping.
I wonder if people should resort to innovative ways of keeping their money instead of using banks, then what will happen to all the jobs and elevated lifestyles our money helps to create for employees of these establishments!
I must admit that this experience made me want to take my cash and invest it else where; but certainly not at another bank for the Republic Bank is just the same.
On the other hand, I took the very same expired passport to Scotia Bank in New Amsterdam and closed an account.
The question I would like answered is why Scotia Bank can accept my expired passport to close an account but NBS would not let me have a few thousand dollars of my own money because of the same expired passport! Isn’t this an outrage? After all I am a bona fide member of the New Building Society.
In closing I would like the officials of the NBS to know that I am very disheartened about this experience and I hope they would work towards improving their policy on the issue I have brought to their attention.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Juliet Dukhi
a passport ,although expired can be used as a form of I D, however this cannot be used in any form of travel that requires such.
i think the staff needs retraining, but that is the NBS,all of sudden the system there sucks.
waste of good paper space with a non issue.Get passport renewed or new one…..
Faria you got a lot of nerve to talk about passports out here.
You write da letter to Anand yet ?????
Juliet Dukhi, even though I agree with you that it was within the Teller’s discretion to allow the transaction, she was abiding by the rules of the financial institution. The rules clearly state that a “valid” ID must be presented.
Now, your tantrum aside- I suggest you chalk this up to a learning experience and ensure that your ID’s are valid for all future transactions. You do not have a right to demand or expect that the teller be sanctioned or disciplined.
Rules are rules.
Very well said BR,to withdraw money from a bank requires a valid ID along with the other documents.
A Passport is Valid until it expires, yours was expired when you presented it?
questions:
1. Why did you not renew your passport since you knew beforehand that it was expired when you presented it?
2. Did you stop to think that he clerk was only doing her job based on the the policies that he/she has to abide with?
3. Did you you think about if the clerk would hve been fired had he/she not follow the policy?
4. Did think of the posibility that some stranger could’ve walked into the bank with your expired ID and withdrawn monies from your account?
5. Did you think about how Scotia and NBS are to seperate institutions that operate under different policies and have different comfort levels when dealing with expierd ID’s?
Is 2.5% of one’s financial assets for yearly zakaat compulsory? Does every adult Muslim in Guyana pay zakaat? Please note I’m asking innocent questions; I have no ulterior motive. I’d appreciate an answer from a knowledgeable Muslim brother.
It’s only compulsory on an individual if you’ve accumulated wealth for the entire year and possesses the minimum amount. See wiki..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakat
Marko, thanks a lot for the reference. I’ve read it and am much wiser now. Juliet Dukhi deserves great respect for honouring that important tenet of her religion.
The bank took the correct action. You cannot submit and expired ID to conduct any business regardless if local branch tellers know you. Your best course of action was to have one of your sons withdraw the funds since it’s a joint account. Nowhere in Canada you will be allowed to present an expired ID. A valid ID is not necessary to close an account since you are not withdrawing any funds.
Marko, I do not know about the procedures in Canada, but here in the US (In NY at some banks) all you do to withdraw funds at a teller’s window is swipe your bank card enter your Pin number and thats it. At other banks a drivers license is sufficient ID. The teller should have retrieved the signature card, prepare a withdrawal slip and ask the client to sign it, then compare signatures. But then in Guyana they are robots. ISNM
Nonsense Marko ! The person presented a ‘valid’ form of identification issued by the Government of Guyana – an official Guyana passport with the bearer’s signature and picture inset. A passport for identification purposes has nothing to do with expiration date. It is a travelling document.
if u had no swipe car and pin, just a passbook u think they will give u the money? ur PIN is the security. Try withdraw 50K with u pin and see what happens.
I don’t think that your passport is an ID, rather it is a travel document. Having said that I’ve found there are very little to no requirement to put your money in the institution, but to tek it out is another thing.
Colin, find that banker and advise him to close his account with that bank. Advise him that if querried by the bank as to the reason for such action, his answer should be: “beacuse your tellers and bank policy are stupid”. What happens to the client who does not have a passport? What should that client present as ID? OK, I know, the picture of a “man kisser” lol ISNM
Juliet, suck it up!! Every institution has policies and procedures and if you need to present a valid ID, then so be it. We are living in dangerous times and the teller was acting with your best interest at heart. Had someone else used your expired passport to withdraw money, you would the first in line picketing the Bank. The days of getting favors and being friends with the Bank managers are long since gone (perhaps still operable in Guyana). Change your thinking and be thankful that the teller was following policy.
ITS ALWAYS EASY TO PUT IN YOUR MONEY BUT TO GET IT OUT ITS A PROBLEM I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPEN WITH THOSE EMPLOYEES THAT WORK THERE THAT STOLE HALF A BILLION DID THEY HAD VAILD ID
If a passport is a form of ID at a banking institution then even an expired one should suffice.
If indeed there is a rule that only valid (and why in Heaven’s name is this a requirement if a passport is only needed as a form of positive indentification)passports can be used then the management of the bank needs to revisit that requirement.
Also, in a devloping, competitive market staffers should use their initiative. If the individual is so well known to the banking staff why was the person given such a difficult time? Again, the main reason for a passport is for identification. If a number of persons from the bank could have identified the individual, isn’t that enough ID?
Rules are rules and should be applicable to all, whether they know the manager of the bank or not. Get your documents in order lady. YOU KNOW that YOUR passport was expired.
The banks are damned when they implement regulations and damned when they don’t.
The question to be addressed is:
‘What is a VALID form of ID?’
1. an expired passport is a form of identification, even though
it is primarily for travel, but
2. it is not VALID and that means that having expired it has lost
its validity
3. therefore as a VALID FORM of ID it fails
4. it is an ID but it is not valid
Case closed.
Next!
thank you!!! i agree 100%
Wrong Veecock ! You are misrepresenting the word ‘valid’, which has its source in the issuing body. A passport is issued by the government and contains biographical data , a picture , signature and bar code/number that pertains only to that passport. That is what makes the document valid. Expiration date has nothing to do with its ‘validity’ for identification purposes. That passport is the property of the government until they cancel it. Then , it becomes not valid for identification.
You live and learn.
Georgie, you are correct. Carl, live and learn. LOL…. ISNM
Georgie and Ulric…I was not going to respond to your comments, but a friend of mine took up the issue with me and that caused me to read what you two wrote.
1.rightly so George, the passport ” contains biographical
data , a picture , signature and bar code/number that
pertains only to that passport”, but
2. georgie, it specifically states that that data is VALID for
a certain period of time.
3. you get that! I repeat ..VALID FOR A CERTAIN PERIOD OF TIME
4. so wrap your brain around that period of validity
5. after that period has expired, now get this, IT IS NO
LONGER VALID
BOTH YOU AND ULRIC NEED TO COME TO MY CLASSES FOR WORD ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION.
I HOLD THEM FREE FOR ALL NEWCOMERS AND OLDSTERS LIKE YOU
Wrong again Veecock ! It is the passport as a travel document that expires. Not the data. Maybe , Veecock, your date of birth, eye color, height, name etc. ( data embeded in the document) has ‘expired’. Live and learn.