Bear, Diah and Pasha

Beware of Tune Money

Posted on the August 14th, 2008 under Money by Papa Bear

This goes to Malaysian readers who are planning to get a debit card or a prepaid Visa card especially to be used for withdrawing funds from PayPal and for eBay payments. Tune Money.com is a provider of a debit card or prepaid Visa card called Tune Card and has been aggressively promoting it all over the country.

Based on some people who claimed that they have managed to withdraw their PayPal funds to this card, I had decided to apply for one as a backup to my Public Bank Visa Electron debit card that I have successfully been using to withdraw my PayPal money to. Then the nightmares began…

The application process was easily done online but the events following that make me regret my decision to try them.

1. The first thing that you need to do after the application was to go to CIMB bank or a Post Office to deposit your initial money of RM 50.00. When I submitted the deposit form to the teller, it took her 15 minutes to figure out how to process the payment. I found this to be ridiculous for a bank that is supposed to handle the Tune Card transactions was having problems processing a simple deposit.
2. After depositing your money, they promised to deliver your card to the Post Office of your choice after 7 working days. I finally managed to collect mine after 21 working days after having to make several calls to their Customer Services, who by the way are a bunch of people with very little experience dealing with customers and cards related matters.
3. After I got my card, I had to activate my card online and when I tried to do that on 11/8/2008, their website was down for the whole day. I called up the Customer Services and they promised to activate my card but I found out later that they never did.
4. On 12/8/2008, I logged in to my account and found that the card was still in process. I called up the Customer Services and they told me that my balance is -RM 9.99. I asked them about my RM 50.00 deposit and they said that there was a problem with the system and asked me to fax my deposit receipt to them. Imagine if you have deposited thousands of RM into your card and you have lost your receipt!
5. On 13/8/2008, I called again to verify whether they have received my fax or not. Do not bother to wait for them to call you since they would not be bothered to do so. After, calling twice, then only I was told that the claim has been processed and the best part is that they could not promised when the problem can be resolved. Imagine if you have your money stuck there!
6. As I write this, the problem has not been resolved. “Where’s my money?”

So, if you are looking for a debit card, beware of Tune Money. I am not tell you not to apply for it but just to be prepared for the possibility of having to go through what I am going through now.

If you need a reliable debit card to be used with your PayPal or eBay, go for Public Bank Visa Electron. It is proven to work and no such problem as described above. It works as an ATM card for Public Bank as well.

If you need a debit card just for non-online shopping, go for Maybank Visa debit card as it is free and works as an ATM card for Maybank as well. You can change your current ATM card to the new debit card FOC.

I think in the case of Tune Money, the culprit is not the product. It is the inexperienced and sometimes unprofessional people (referring to the Customer Services staffs who promised to call back but never did) running it as well as the unreliable back end system. If those are resolved, the product could be worth considering.

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