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Public Bank now joins the Western Union club. Currently, 4 other organisations are offering Western Union telegraphic transfer services:

1) CIMB Bank
2) RHB Bank
3) Bank Rakyat
4) POS Malaysia

I have yet to test the effectiveness of Public Bank’s service, but I would rank them above Bank Rakyat and POS Malaysia for now.

General Features

* Money is available to the receiver within minutes* after the money is sent.

* The applicant/sender and receiver must
- be an Individual
- is 18 years old and above
- possess an original identity card (MYCARD) for Malaysians or original passport and working permit for non-Malaysians.

* No bank account is required to send or receive money under this service.

* The maximum amount that can be sent and receive is RM10,000 and RM50,000 per transaction respectively.

Service Availability

* This service is available during banking hours at all Public Bank branches.

* Sunday Banking #
The following branches are also opened every Sunday from 9.30am to 4.00pm:

State	Branch Location
Wilayah Persekutuan	Jalan Hang Lekiu
Selangor	Sungai Buloh Taman Sri Muda Taman Taming Jaya
Negeri Sembilan	Nilai
Sabah	Inanam Sandakan Lahad Datu Tawau

# The service is confined to the collection of telegraphic transfer applications and Western Union Money Transfer Service.

For more details, please call any Public Bank branch or Western Union Toll Free Number: 1800 813 399

I never thought this would be possible given the way the Country is managed by the current ruling government, but I must give credit when credit is due. The Government should be complimented for making serious effort to go electronic, although compared to other neighbouring countries, we are not exactly very “ahead”. Sometimes, we just need to stop complaining and appreciate what we already have ;-)

However, as much as the process can be computerised…it doesn’t mean that the result will be pleasing to the end users.

Here’s one of the gems that I found from the navigational nightmare at www.gov.my- Online Business Registration.

I’ll keep it short here so that you can also start using the wonderful online services provided by our Government. It’s really a time-saver!

1. To get started, you must have Internet Explorer. Yes, a stupid but nevertheless an important requirement.

2. Next, you must register as a www.gov.my member to show your patriotism. Click here to register.

3. Once you become a member, you can now choose the type of business you want to register. Click here to see all the business types available.

4. To start entering your business details, you should login here. You would also be required to make a payment of RM 5 for a one year subscription.

5. You can also renew your existing businesses here at this link.

That’s it. It’s going to save you lots of money and trips renewing and managing your businesses with this neat online service provided by our Government. Since we’ve already paid for it (tax), we might as well utitlize it.

So, what’s the deal with this new Maybank2u (M2U) website?

Yes, there are finally getting rid of the ugly website which has been active since I started using Maybank2u in 2002. Of course, they’ve added many features along the way, but the ugly structure has remained intact. Here it is:

Just look at the clutter! If you are a first time user, you might thought someone just hacked Maybank2u!

Now, let’s look at the new M2U website which would be made available to the public sometime in mid October. Drum roll please…

To view the old site and new site superimposed together, click here.

Revamping a website is no easy task. When you are aligning a few tables, including a new link or adding a new product banner, you are basically “updating” the site. But when you are going to revamp a website, a whole lot of issues need to be taken into consideration. From the backend system all the way to the impact the revamp will have on your branding, this resource-intensive undertaking will cost you lots of money and time.

Before you start revamping a website, you’d better have a very clear idea of what you intend to achieve from the revamp. If the purpose of the revamp is to reduce operational cost in the 400 physical branches nationwide, would the reduced operational cost justify the revamping effort?

Who would benefit most from the revamp? Is this going to be a customer-oriented revamp? Or is the revamp a move to migrate away from the existing legacy platform? Of course, only Maybank’s own management would have the answers to all these questions. As an observer, I can only speculate based on the things I’ve seen.

After having some hands-on experience with the pre-launched M2U, it was quite obvious that the revamp was a major cosmetic upgrade.

I am estimating the cost of the revamp from between RM 500K to RM 1 million (this figure has been generated using “Pluck From Air” algorithm).

The revamp however did not introduce anything new to the way online banking is done here in Malaysia. The login page procedure remains the same, my favorite fund transfer features are there, the pay bills features are also there, only this time, there are more merchants in the list. Basically nothing “revolutionary”. The only difference is that the links are in much more organized than the previous M2U edition. Maybe there are alot of changes behind the scene, but I definitely cannot tell from my first hand experience with the new site. Since the site is still being fine-tuned, there is no guarantee I won’t be seeing this screen.

Here’s a screenshot of the new M2U’s dashboard:

I was actually expecting more of a functional upgrade of M2U. Yes, the cosmetic upgrade looks really good, but it’s not going to change my online banking experience dramatically.

Alrite, here’s what I really want from my online banking platform.

I want my logon page to appear in the homepage, so that I don’t have to click on a logon link which redirects me to a logon page. Let me logon straight from the homepage. It will save me a considerable amount of time. Yes, I know I could bookmark the logon page, but why can’t you just let people logon from the homepage?

I want a sign-in seal. This would allow me to avoid being tricked into a phishing page. Although I don’t fall for such cheap shots, I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry. This sign-in seal idea’s been around for quite sometime, why don’t you start using it?

Since it’s never a good thing to be everything to everyone, I suggest M2U allow me to personalize my banking experience. Let me choose the service that I would most commonly use and keep the rest out of my sight. In short, don’t stuff things down my throat.

For the past 6 years, I’ve been using only 3 types of services:

1) Checking my account balance and statement
2) Fund transfer
3) Pay my bills

You might want to recommend me features such as subscribing to the latest IPO offerings, or renewing my car insurance. Thanks but no thanks; I would look it up under “View Other Services�? if I am interested. Otherwise, please don’t clutter up the page with things I won’t be using.

Let me customize my own dashboard into something like the following:

Also, I would prefer that you do not show me things that are not relevant to me. For example, in the screen below, you have a “Loan�? tab. I don’t have a loan with you, so that tab is totally irrelevant to me, and there’s nothing I can do with it anyway. Why not just remove it until I sign up a loan with you?

Also, I have a suggestion which can further make M2U the preferred choice for online banking. Provide an Application Programming Interface (API) that will allow online businesses and business that uses online transactions to interact with your banking platform. Something similar to PayPal. This will help a lot of budding online entrepreneurs and reduce a lot of administrative business processes. This way, you will directly increase your subscriber base by another tens of thousands.

This also means you should avoid integrating lifestyle elements into your website. The fact is you cannot integrate everything under your portal, lest you want M2U to turn into a departmental store front. Let the businesses do it independently. Provide them with the API that allows them to easily integrate their payment solution with your platform. You should just do what you do best- to provide seamless and reliable online transaction which makes online shopping a great experience. Stop turning M2U into a lifestyle portal. Let me reiterate again: You are a bank and you should focus on doing what bank does best- providing a reliable transaction platform.

Introduce online banking services that would truly make M2U remarkable. Connect M2U customers directly with Western Union or even PayPal.

Another issue I have with the new revamp is that you seemed to have forgotten that Malaysia is a multi-cultural society. By just translating M2U into Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil, I can guarantee that you will see a surge of new subscribers. Please do that in the next revision. At least as a form of corporate social responsibility.

That is basically the kind of online banking experience I am expecting. Maybe not from this version of M2U, but I do hope that in the next revamp, the items in my wishlist will materialize.

While the launching of a financial institution new website might sound rather serious and formal, the organizers definitely provided a very good place for all the attendees who are mostly bloggers like me to network with each other. It’s also through this event that I finally met KC Lau, the man behind the widely-read kclau.com. Here’s a picture of the only two PF bloggers at the event.

Thanks Pin for the snapshot! KC, hope you don’t mind I leeched the photo from your site :-D

Also here are a few other journals by other attendees who were at the event:

http://www.websitesolution.com/2008/09/08/maybank2u-20-sneak-preview-the-launch/
http://kclau.com/website-review/maybank2u-20-exclusive-preview/
http://blogjunkie.net/2008/09/maybank-puts-its-users-squarely-in-the-drivers-seat-with-m2u-20
http://www.suanie.net/2008/09/10/maybank2u-20-preview/
http://www.redesignmalaysia.com/
http://www.shoppingnsales.com/blog/?p=22
http://nigelais.blogspot.com/2008/09/m2u-20-exclusive-preview.html

I signed up for the package on a fateful afternoon back in February 2008. The package was RM 178 per month. Since it came with a HP Laptop, I am suppose to be tied to the package for the next 24 months, which comes to RM 4,272. Thus far, from February to September, I have paid RM 1,246 for this sub-standard product.

I’ve officially discontinued my Maxis wireless broadband on 9th Sep 2008.

There’s only one reason why I would want to pay for a wireless broadband service- mobility. Since I am always running around, I need internet access on-the-go. Yes, before I subscribed to the broadband service, I have to ensure that my appointments are made at a place with wifi connections, or at least “close to a Starbucks”. You also get to learn which Mc Donald’s are run by stingy managers. You also know which Old Town branch has got broadband but provides no power outlet, which is a very obvious message that customers with laptops are not welcomed (hint: Aman Suria). So, I thought by having a wireless broadband package, I could end the Hunt for Wifi Zones once and for all.

Let’s look at what they’ve quoted on their website on Minimum Contract Period:

We believe in giving you the best assurance when you use our service. As such, we are providing a seven (7) days cooling-off period. This allows you to test whether you like the service and whether the indoor coverage in your specific area is adequate to deliver the speeds you expect. During this 7-day period, you can discontinue our Maxis Wireless Broadband Service without any handling fee. Simply return the modem and telephone set (if applicable) in good working condition in its original packaging to our Maxis Centres (KLANG VALLEY: KLCC, Sunway, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Cheras, Selayang, Pavilion, Berjaya Times Square PENANG: Northam, Bayan Baru, Prai JOHOR BAHRU: JB Kotaraya, Taman Molek).

For full clause of their no minimum contract period, check here.

When I first signed up, of course there was no such clause. This must have come up to reduce the number of complaints. 7 days to test out the connection is actually too short. Why? Since you need mobility, you definitely need to test out the connectivity in a few destinations. Unless you can cover many places that you are most likely to travel to in these 7 days, then having this 7 days cooling period is as good as nothing. So, to really exercise your cooling-off period rights, make sure you schedule a cross-border trip across the country the moment they pass you the tampon.

Also, after the 7-days period, the no minimum contract period is as good as USELESS. That’s because you would still need to pay a hefty fine of RM200 for handling fees if you are to stop using the service in less than a year. RM200 for handling what? That’s literally daylight robbery. So, why didn’t I stayed on for another 4 months to qualify for the handling fee waiver, which would mean that Maxis will absorb the RM200 handling fee? Maxis has provided me a service I could barely use, and I don’t see that changing in the next 4 months. If I am still subscribed to the service, I would continue to fork out RM712 for a useless device. So, which is the lesser evil? The RM200 pickpocket or the RM712 robber wielding a parang? You might want to help Ananda Krishnan do the maths.

I happened to extensively travel between Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Johor. The quality of connection in Kuala Lumpur is still alright. The speed is fine, but the amount of times being dropped out during a connection is considerably high, say once in about half an hour. Even if you are not dropped out, chances are the downloading will just come to a stop, whereby you need to restart the connection again. Well, that’s in Klang Valley.

Now, let’s drive 180 kilometres south to the Historical City of Melaka. Over here, the symptoms are quite consistent in the past 6 months: the device will indicate it’s connected at 3G or EDGE, but essentially nothing comes through. Yes, you’ll be loading pages and pages of “Connection Time Out”, and if you are lucky, the Maxis broadband homepage loads.

And let’s go all the way down south another 120 kilometres to a small town called Kluang. It’s small, but the population is rather civilized and the 250,000 residents living here also deserve decent wireless broadband connection. Unfortunately, Maxis doesn’t think so. Hence, you are being served GPRS if you are really lucky and most of the time, it’s just 53.68Kbps, which is almost the same speed as your normal dial-up connection. Only, all these speed are just “lip service”. Like in Melaka, you don’t get any data while you “stay connected”.

I remember very well on the day as I was enthusiastically signing up for the broadband service, the Maxis Wireless Broadband representative was explaining to me how they are going to extend their coverage in time to come, and how the broadband connection works. Basically, the device will detect the connection speed that is available in the area, and if you look at the chart below, the slowest connection that the device can fall back on is dial-up.

This essentially means that I still get to connect at dial up speed in the worst possible scenario. However, they’ve never told me that even though you might be connected, there’s no assurance that the data will be received by the device.

Now, their favorite tag line is this: Speed of service is on best effort basis.

Ouch…whatever happened to consumer rights? Does that mean we get a discount from you if your package is performing below acceptable quality? That’s certainly not in my case. I have to pay in full every month even though I make complaints to them on a monthly basis, even when I am having problems downloading a decent web page. Just because you have that “best effort basis” clause, you can just tell all customers who are facing problems with your service, “What did I tell you? Stop whining, we are doing our best.” Is that the BEST Maxis can do?

Alas, this is my personal experience. I am not sure if there are any Maxis wireless broadband users who are having the same problems which I’ve had. If you do, please share it here. Also, there could be Maxis wireless broadband users who might have had a good experience, please share it here too.

To add to the challenge of unsubscribing, I asked the Customer Service dude what’s going to happen to my Laptop that came with the joint-promotion. He just gave me blank look and tell me to contact HP myself. So much for joint-promotion, it looks more like a joint-extortion.

I have heard good stories from many friends who are using CELCOM’s wireless broadband, which is essentially using the same HUAWEI E220 technology for the device. I have not used it myself, but if I am going to subscribe another broadband services in the future, I will definitely give CELCOM’s package a try.

To conclude my adventure, here’s another look at one of Maxis Wireless Broadband propaganda. They are quite smart to use all these “wild, jungle, animal” themes to sub consciously drill into our heads that you can go into the wild jungle like Indiana Jones and still able to work and surf the net with their service.

All I can say is that you shouldn’t sign up with Maxis wireless broadband if you need mobility. Period.

I am not alone in my quest to bring up the injustice that Maxis is practicing on their customers and ex-customers:

http://titoki.blogspot.com/2008/09/fuck-u-stimx-fuck-u-maxis-bb-fuck-you.html
http://crizlai.blogspot.com/2008/05/maxis-wireless-broadband-unreliable.html
http://www.planetmy.com/blog/maxis-broadband/
http://nccc.org.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=820&Itemid=99999999
http://www.consumer.com.my/message/index.php?itemid=1620

Don’t think twice when you are choosing your next wireless broadband package. In fact, don’t even think at all. No amount of perks or up front promotion will make it up for the distressing experience once you sign up with Maxis. You’ve been warned!

I’ve always been wondering why modern devices’ power cable and adapters comes in so many different shapes and sizes?

Is there a reason why they cannot conform to one standard format? You know, like how they did it with the digital content distribution. When the content consortium decided on one format, everyone must comply with it without exception. However, such is not the case with power adapters and cables.

If you travel quite a bit, I’m sure you would have experienced battery compatibility issues while you are on the road. Your friend uses a Sony Ericsson mobile phone while you are are die-hard Nokia supporter. As your battery low-power alert beeps itself to its own death, you realized that you’ve left your phone charger at home. And you start cursing your friend for not worshiping Nokia.

Same goes to laptops, the Thinkpad’s power adapter would never fit into a Vaio’s.

Why can’t they use the Kettle Plug’s logic? Every kettle in Malaysia uses the same plugs, regardless of their “ethnicity”. Hey, I can even use the kettle’s plug on my old CRT Monitor. I’m not asking all electrical equipments to use one single “format”, but at least every devices in their own category should have a standard format.

Beside making life miserable for consumers, I think there’s really no upside on how having multiple standards of battery adapters.

I’m no electrical engineer. I just thought if this is possible at all. You’ve got any clues?

Being one of the nation’s biggest bookstore, I hadn’t expect this to come from their IT department…

What’s the message here?

From now till November 2008, Popular Book Co. (M) Sdn Bhd will not have any resources to run their website?

Or Popular Book Co. (M) Sdn Bhd decided that customers who goes online don’t generate much profit, hence they’ve decided to ignore the netizens for this whole period?

In the age where the online medium has become one of the most, if not the most important communication channel between a corporation and their customers, you don’t really see this type of brick-and-mortar-style “close down for renovation until further notice” sign.

I just don’t get it.

MSC Malaysia Status
The MSC Malaysia status is your passport to a host of privileges reserved for ICT and ICT-facilitated business. It is also a mark of world-class service and achievement. Companies with the MSC Malaysia status will benefit from an array of world class facilities and premises that provide just the right environment for a thriving and dynamic global ICT hub for the region.

MSC Malaysia status is awarded to both local and foreign companies that develop or use multimedia technologies to produce or enhance their products and services, and for process development. There are five types of applications available for the MSC Malaysia status.

So what’s wrong with this whole MSC thing? Will world class facilities and premises produce world class IT start-ups and give Malaysian IT companies the edge to compete with the giants of the world?

Ironically, the most profitable business in the MSC area is not ICT-related. It’s real estate.

If you happen to own oil palm lands near the district of Dengkil which is included in the MSC designated zone, you’ve just struck gold. To be eligible for MSC status, you must be located in the MSC zone. The idea of having a company physically there just to obtain the MSC status is totally absurd.

I had the privilige to work for 2 companies that hold MSC status. The first one was run by a team that specializes in getting grants and fundings. Yes, they’re very good with proposals and when they see the ministry of finance giving out so much money to “support ICT projects”, they immediately went to work on their killer proposals. They got the funds but nothing came out of the proposed projects.

The 2nd company I worked for had a more viable business model. In order to comply with the MSC requirement of having a physical office in the MSC designated zones, they rented an office in Cyberjaya. It’s about 1,500 square feet and the company stationed nobody there for the next 4 years. You can’t go wrong with the “MSC Real Estate Scheme”.

And now, they started this I-City thing in Shah Alam, and is inviting companies who wants to setup their MSC offices to consider renting a place there, far away from “civilization”. Now, that’s another up and coming “MSC Real Estate Scheme”.

Why in the world didn’t the MSC Management consider approving areas in Petaling Jaya or Subang where there are already alot of entrepreneurs and infrastructure ready? Whose interest is the MSC really taking care of? The ICT entrepreneur or the oil palm estates owners?

There’s definitely a better way to increase the ICT workforce and talent pool than to cram everyone into high tech oil palm estates.

Thanks to Microscopic Earthling (his real name is Sourjya), you can now convert any currency in the world just by using a little widget that is available here at the Meshio.com’s sidebar- it’s located under the header “Currency Converter”.

The plugin is called curreX.

Besides doing a good job with the currency translation part, this plugin is very well supported by the developer himself. He has been very persistent and patient in helping me to fix a few minor bugs. And with such a handy tool, I decided to ask the creator himself about his plugin.

The following is an exclusive email interview with the man behind the codes.

Yow Chuan (YC) : Where are you based, and what do you do professionally?

Sourjya (SJ) : I’m originally from India but have been settled in Thailand for almost 7 years now. My primary work involves mainstream software development (Windows based) on the .NET platform as well as PHP-based web-applications.

YC : Why did you chose to create this currency converter plugin? I mean, there are so many plugins that you could have coded, why a currency converter?

SJ : curreX was the by-product of one of my first CMS coding projects. I was designing a site for a property investment site in Thailand. The site-owner wanted a mechanism by which the listed property price could be converted to any given world currency.

I was teaching myself Ajax at that point of time - so I thought, why not try to make it the same way and come up with something snazzy.

The first version was extremely crude and consisted of just a single dropdown box for the destination currency - though that’s what the requirement was, since the amount and source currency were both pre-listed.

I had started blogging around the same time and had fallen in love with WordPress right away. What caught my fancy was it’s plug-in architecture and immense extensibility. Seeing so many cool plug-ins out there made me want to create one of my own.

But I really lacked in the “idea” department. It seemed like the other plug-in authors had almost every angle covered!! Then suddenly it struck me that I had something ready at hand that can be easily converted to a cool plug-in. And curreX was born.

YC : Anyone helped you to develop curreX? Did you have a team to help you out, you know, like a beta-tester, a designer etc?

SJ : Nope! None at all - except for hundreds of Ajax tutorials on the net from where I borrowed ideas and stitched them together. I had passive help from one quarter though. There was a plug-in similar to curreX for Mambo / Joomla - developed by Norbert Feria. Thanks to him for setting me off in the right direction. However, it was a much simpler plug-in and didn’t employ Ajax. I used the currency conversion back-end from that plug-in and modified it to suit my needs.

YC : Why did you choose to use the Yahoo! API? Have you compared it with other currency exchange APIs?

SJ : The choice came naturally with Norbert Feria’s plug-in. It was already using the Yahoo! API - so I just played along. I wouldn’t really call it an API though. The exchange rates are available as freely downloadable plain-text CSV files from the Yahoo! Finance site. curreX connects to this page, provides the correct parameters (srouce and destination currencies), downloads the CSV file and extracts the exchange rate from it.

In a way this was much simpler than signing-up for other APIs and learning their syntax all over again. So I decided to stick to this.

YC : Who do you think should use this plugin? What is the target industry that you hope this plugin will be able to cater to?

SJ : Anyone running a financial blog should benefit from this plug-in. Other than that any site that is selling products or services online to a worldwide client base can take help of this - albeit with minor modifications and customizations.

YC : Do you know how many people is using curreX at this moment? Are you using any type of tracking mechanism to check your fanbase?

SJ : This is something I’ve always been very keen on knowing - but it’s hard to figure out with the present system. I can only make a rough estimate from the comments and my server logs.

I plan to include some sort of tracking mechanism in future, which will inform me when the plug-in is activated and/or deactivated. I can get a pretty accurate figure for that. I don’t want to implement any real-time tracking system as this will only help to slow down the plug-in.

YC : Since this plugin is so handy, will you consider charging for it?

SJ : Nope. Never. This was released free and open source and that’s how it will always be.

YC : Last but not least, what are you future plans for curreX?

SJ : At the moment I’m totally out of ideas of my own. There were a couple of suggestions left in comments by various people using curreX. I plan to follow-up on them and implement whichever is possible. If you get any bright sparks, do let me know :)

Apart from that, I’ve released a flash-version too for those who’re facing consistent problems with the HTML/Ajax version. I intend to refine it further (skinnable interface maybe).

CurreX is now available in plain HTML or Flash-based flavors. Initially, it was only meant for widget-based Wordpress themes, but after constant bugging from non-widget Wordpress users like me, Sourjya has managed to customised his plugin to work with non-widget-based themes.

Installation is a breeze, and if you encounter any issues during installation, you can always email Sourjya and notify him on the bug. But be sure to check out the comment section of the plugin page and the curreX support forum before shooting him with your bug report.

By the way, this is not a “paid review”. I truly recommend you to give this neat plugin a try, especially if your industry is finance or travel related.

Again, I would like to thank Sourjya for taking his time for the email interview and also for the great plugin!

If it’s good, it’s worth sharing.

Here you go, FireFox 3.

And while downloading, you’re helping them to create a new World Record!

You might have noticed that I love writing guides. Maybe it’s a guy thing, you know, like reading manuals and shopping in DIY stores. Judging from my earlier success with some rather geeky tutorials waaaaaaay back in 2003, I think the habit stuck.

Okie, enough self promotion, let’s get back to today’s guide.

If you are a Malaysian like me who wants to withdraw money out from your PayPal account, this is one of the most cost-effective way to do it. You might be able to setup bank accounts in other countries where PayPal withdrawals can be made without any fees, but in this guide, I am going to show you how you can do it without using any oversea bank accounts at a minimal charge of USD 5 per transaction (limited to USD 500.00 per transaction).

So let’s get down to the ingredients you need:

Item 1: RM 100 in cash. No cheques, bank drafts or postal cheques.
Item 2: Your NRIC
Item 3: An Al Rajhi Branch, the closer the better.

That’s all.

Here’s the 19-Steps Procedure:

1) Go to the Teller and request to open an Al Rajhi Savings Account. Opt for the Mudharabah Savings Account-i since according to the Wise Teller I’ve met, the normal Savings Account-i does not give you any form interest. Also request for the Debit-ATM Card-i, which is the critical ingredient in our entire PayPal withdrawal scheme.

Tips: Don’t bother asking the Teller about PayPal related fees, you might just get a “Huh!?” look.

2) You can also opt to open for the Al Rajhi Current Account-i, but make sure you have the following extra ingredients: a letter from an Introducer who already holds an Al-Rajhi current account or a 6-months current account statement from other banks.

3) You will be asked to fill up the standard account application form and there’ll be a few autograph sessions.

4) After that, you will be asked to part with your RM 100 cash, and you will be notified by the Teller that you must have a minimum RM 50 balance in your account at all times (if you open the Mudharabah Savings Account-i).

5) Once you made the payment, the Teller should return to you with the Debit ATM card, where you will be asked to sign on the back of the card. You will also be given a document folder (also known as the Scrolls), where it contains a few important documents which you will need to activate your account later on.

Tips: Step 3 to Step 5 should take no longer than 15 minutes.

6) You should have everything you need from the Teller. The next step is to activate your Internet-Banking access, and to do that, you must obtain a temporary Internet PIN.

7) To obtain the magical temporary Internet PIN, you must explore the Scrolls given to you by Teller previously. There should be a Scroll that says “Confidential/Sulit”. Open it and you should see 6 magical PINs where you will use it to access your account via the ATM Machine later. Hence, it’s important that you DO NOT LEAVE the Al Rajhi branch yet.

8) Go to the ATM Machine, insert the Debit ATM card and use the 6 magical PINs from the “Confidential/Sulit” Scroll. Select the option to obtain the Temporary Internet Pin and the machine will then print you a random 6 digit numbers which will be your Temporary Internet Pin. It should look something like the following:

9) Okie, you can now leave the Al Rajhi branch and head home on your next quest to link your PayPal account to your new Al Rajhi Debit ATM card. Make sure you activate your Al Rajhi ATM card first before you add the card in your PayPal account.

10) Go to the Al Rajhi official website: http://www.alrajhibank.com.my/. Click on the First Time Login under the Internet Banking section.

11) Read and then accept the Terms and Conditions to proceed. It’s not like we have a choice NOT to accept. Banks will always be banks.

12) Now, take out the Scroll that says “Essential Information”.

The CIC Number above corresponds to the Customer Number you see in the “First Time Logon” screen below. The Pin will be the set of 6 digit numbers you obtain previously from the ATM Machine. Do not confuse this PIN with the 6 digit numbers given to you in the “Confidential/Sulit” scroll- they are different.

13) Once you are logged in, you will be asked to insert a “New Username” and “New Password”. Once you are done, click on log out to complete the process of initializing your Internet Banking registration.

14) Now, let’s proceed to the real deal: logging into your Internet Banking Account. Go to the official Al Rajhi website again: http://www.alrajhibank.com.my/. This time, click on the “Login” link instead of “First Time Login” under the Intenet Banking section. Use the “New Username” and “New Password” you have just set in Step 13. You should be able to login into your account and that means your Al Rajhi Internet Banking is officially active now.

15) Now, login into your PayPal account. Click on the “Withdraw” link, under the “My Account” header.

16) Click on the “Withdraw Funds to Your Card” link. Notice that you’ll be charged USD 5.00 per transaction.

17) Using the information printed on your Al Rajhi ATM Debit Card, fill up the information as requested by PayPal.

Tips: Insert single space after every 4 digit as per your Debit Card Number. Also, use the same Address for the Billing Address as the one you provided when applying for your Al Rajhi account earlier on. It doesn’t need to be the exact format and structure, but don’t stray too far.

18) Once you are done filling up the details, click on the “Add Card” button. If you have not activated your Al Rajhi Internet Banking account previously, please make sure you do so using Step 10 to Step 14. Otherwise, you will be greeted with an “Unsuccessful” page when you tried adding the card, even if all the information you’ve provided is correct.

Tips: You MUST activate your Internet Banking account first before linking your card from PayPal.

19) Assuming that you’ve successfully added your new ATM Debit card into your Paypal account, you will see your new card when you click on the Withdraw link. All you need to do now is to insert the amount of money you want to transfer to your ATM Debit card. The maximum withdrawal limit for Paypal to Al Rajhi ATM Debit card is USD 500.00 as of this writing.

And that concludes the PayPal Withdrawal Guide. I am not sure how are the procedures like with other Debit Cards, but it should be roughly the same- activate your internet banking account and then link the card from within Paypal.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the guide and find it useful in your quest to transfer money to your bank account from PayPal. Should you find anything missing, confusing or have anything to add, just drop me a line!

By the way, I wouldn’t mind a little tips: